Church Of The Holy Trinity

The Church of the Holy Trinity is a stone building of 1843, designed by J. H. Ball of Plymouth, with significant alterations in 1889 by J. D. Sedding. The church is situated on a rise above the road, enclosed by stepped coped churchyard walls. It is constructed of stone rubble with freestone dressings, covered by slate roofs with crested ridge tiles.

The church comprises a four-bay aisled nave, tall gabled aisles, a three-stage west tower in the lancet style, and a chancel with a north chancel chapel and vestries. The east windows feature Geometric Decorated tracery, reflecting the developed Gothic Revival style introduced by Sedding. The west tower includes a moulded doorway, angle buttresses, lancet windows, a plain corbelled parapet, moulded frames for clock faces, and a carved 1843 date plaque. The aisles are similarly buttressed with a corbelled parapet and lancet windows. Sedding’s work at the east end incorporates a wide, high-set Geometric Decorated east window, and the vestry block displays a domestic Gothic style.

Internally, the arcades feature slender granite columns with engaged shafts and richly-moulded arches. The nave roof is hammerbeam style, of slender scantling, and the aisle roofs are more elaborate with brattishing and open arcaded decoration. Original fittings from c.1843 include an elaborately carved wooden pulpit on a carved stem with a Gothick balustrade to the pulpit stair and a tall crocketted font cover to an octagonal stone font with quatrefoils and shafts. The nave seating consists of open-backed benches with shaped ends. Sedding's additions include a moulded pointed chancel arch dying into the responds, canted boarded roofs, slender shafts to window jambs, painted panels to the altar, good-quality choir stalls with poppyheads and vine-carved ends, a low stone-coped chancel screen with wrought iron railings, and a pair of Arts and Crafts beaten bronze doors with enamelled crosses. Victorian stained glass is present in the east windows.

The church is notable for its well-designed west tower, elegant arcades, and contemporary pulpit and font cover from 1843. It also possesses significant historical and artistic interest due to the high quality design and craftsmanship of Sedding’s 1889 additions, particularly the choir stalls and the chancel screen with its Arts and Crafts bronze and enamelled doors.