Church Of Holy Trinity

Church of Holy Trinity, Nailsea

Parish church of 15th-century date, with porch added in 1712 and restoration carried out in 1861. A church room was under construction at the time of survey in March 1985. The building is constructed of rubble stone with limestone dressings and slate roofs, except for the porch which has a stone tiled roof. It comprises a west tower, nave, south aisle and chapel, south porch, chancel and north chapel, all executed in Perpendicular style.

The four-stage west tower has a pointed arched west door in a moulded surround with hood mould, and a three-light window above with hood mould and mask stops. The second stage carries similar but smaller two-light windows on all sides, and a clock at the south with hood mould and string course. The third and fourth stages have two-light bell-openings with stone tracery and hood mould. The parapet features pierced cusped lozenges, gargoyles and crocketed pinnacles. A north-west octagonal stair tower contains lancets and carries a similar parapet, pinnacles, spire and weathervane. The main tower displays a plinth, weathered string courses and diagonal buttresses stepped up to the top stage.

The south aisle is three bays long, with two three-light windows with hood moulds to the right, paired lancets with cusped heads and flat hood mould to the left, and a four-light east window with hood mould. Buttresses, parapet and coping complete the aisle. To the left is a gabled porch with stilted arched chamfered opening and a datestone reading "This porch was new built in the year 1712", with raised coped verges and a heavy door with raised fillets. The chancel has a three-light east window, paired cusped lancets with flat hood mould to north and south, parapet and coping with a cross finial. The north elevation is concealed by later building.

Interior

The tall pointed tower arch features broad wave and hollow mouldings, with a twentieth-century panelled gallery across its upper part and a four-centred arched door to the tower. The nave contains a four-bay nineteenth-century roof of principal rafters, collars and one row of purlins with wall plate, the principals rising from stone corbels. Two three-light windows light the north side, together with a door with triangular head and a four-centred arched north door to a stair. To the left of this stair stands a stone pulpit, and to the right is access to the former rood loft. An octagonal pulpit on a stem carries two blank panels on each side, with a small two-light cusped window above.

The five-bay south arcade contains wide pointed arches with piers of four shafts and four wide hollows, with a thin shaft set within. A broad band of foliage runs along the capitals; where the rood loft ran, the capitals carry carving of a bull, angel and lion. The south aisle and chapel have a five-bay shallow pitched roof with principals and two rows of purlins, incorporating some older timbers. A trefoil-headed piscina in the south wall is accompanied by a shelf for an image set on a mask corbel. The porch displays one row of purlins and a ridge purlin, with an inner door in a similar moulded surround with hood mould and a polygonal image shelf above.

The chancel connects to the north chapel (now organ chamber) through a wide pointed arch with shafts to the sides carrying mouldings as in the south arcade. A four-centred arched doorway leads to the chapel by the pulpit stair, and a squint provides views into the north chapel. A blocked four-centred arched south priest's door is visible, together with a trefoil-headed piscina with crocketed hood and pinnacles. A nineteenth-century stone reredos adorns the chancel, which has a two-bay roof of similar construction to the nave, with a small quatrefoil light above at the junction with the nave.

The font is an octagonal stone example in Perpendicular style. An eighteenth-century Royal Arms in painted stone with cherubs hangs over the north door.

Monuments

The nave contains monuments including: a stone tablet with verse to Thomas Jenkins, Rector of Backwell, 1626; a stone tablet with shield and cherubs to Tobias Hart, 1722; a marble tablet with draped urn to Mary Simmons Coombs, 1815; a slate tablet in a carved stone surround with flowers and cherubs to Sarah Walter, 1754; paired brass inscription plates in a fine carved stone surround with two trumpeting angels to Mary Bennett, 1727; a stone tablet with paired panels and painted cherub to John Baily, 1768; and a similar stone tablet with inset brass plate and shield to Ralph Vigers, 1711 and Thomas Tyndall, 1720. The south chapel contains a marble tablet with cornice to William Bullock, 1780, and a marble tablet with pediment to William Hinkes, 1747. The chancel displays a fine monument with Doric columns and scrolled broken pediment to Richard Cole, 1650. Ledger stones in the chancel are obscured by a twentieth-century platform.