Church Of Holy Trinity And Attached Railings And Gate

The Church of Holy Trinity is a parish church, with the tower constructed between 1843 and 1845 by D Mackintosh and G Abbot, and the remainder of the church rebuilt in 1867 by William White. Rainwater heads on the nave are dated 1843. The church is built in a Free Gothic style, mainly influenced by medieval Perpendicular architecture, with French Gothic influences to the east end.

The church's plan includes a four-bay nave and aisles, an apsidal chancel featuring pairs of projecting bays on the north and south sides, and a tower to the southwest. The tower is constructed of rubble with dressed stone, while the rest of the church is of snecked stone with ashlar and Bath stone dressings, all set beneath slate roofs with lead rolls.

The exterior is characterized by a notably grand and tall Somerset-influenced tower, a nave with a clerestory, a chancel roof lower than the nave, and aisles with lean-to roofs. Coped parapets are present on the chancel, chancel bays, and nave. The east end is three-sided and apsidal, featuring five two-light Decorated style traceried windows, the eastern window being the largest. Projecting bays on the north and south sides have hipped roofs and two-light traceried windows. The aisles incorporate buttresses with set-offs. A moulded doorway is on the north side, while the south side features a similar doorway to the west and a doorway in a style typical of William White, supported by a stone-slated pent roof carried over from an aisle buttress to the west side of the south chancel bay. A flat-roofed vestry with a parapet sits in the angle between the aisle and the tower. Steeply-pointed, two-light clerestory windows are present in the nave, along with a five-light Perpendicular-style traceried window and a moulded doorway at the west end.

The tower is a fine, four-stage structure with set-back buttresses, string courses, and a corbelled embattled parapet with corner pinnacles featuring crockets, as well as lower, central pinnacles on each face. The tower exhibits a carved frieze below the belfry and parapet. Four tall, two-light belfry openings are present on each face, each featuring pierced quatrefoils and ogival hoodmoulds with crockets. The third stage has a single cinquefoil-headed opening with a square-headed hoodmould.

Inside, the nave has a deep arch-braced roof and quatrefoil piers, complemented by stained glass from 1875 by Powell.

The church includes iron railings and gates at the west end of the tower with an unpierced cast-iron frieze depicting foliage. A graveyard on the south side remains uncleared, featuring an avenue of horse chestnuts along the path through the churchyard.

The church is primarily graded for its fine tower, which evokes Somerset tracery and serves as a prominent landmark in the town, and for its forceful exterior composition by William White.