Trinity Cheltenham and churchyard boundary walls

Trinity Cheltenham and churchyard boundary walls

A former chapel of ease, later parish church, now an evangelical charismatic Anglican church. Built between 1820 and 1823 to designs by George Allen Underwood, with alterations and additions in 1877-78 and around 1907 by John Middleton. The interior was reordered in 1996-97.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar on a sandstone plinth with a shallow-pitched Welsh slate roof. Although oriented north-east to south-west, the description uses liturgical compass points throughout. The plan is rectilinear, comprising a three-stage west tower, two-stage corner towers, a large nave with north and south aisles, and a shallow sanctuary. A vestry dating from around 1907 stands to the south side, and a porch of 1984-85 has been added at the west door. A crypt lies beneath the church. The church stands in a small churchyard covered with large ledger stones.

The church is built in the Commissioners Gothic style. It has a deep chamfered plinth with a chamfered first-stage band to the west and corner towers. The north and south aisles are divided by lateral buttresses with offsets, whilst the west tower and corner towers have set-back buttresses with offsets. All doorways contain double studded doors. All windows, unless otherwise stated, are of two-lights with a transom and Y-tracery, set within pointed surrounds with label-stopped hoodmoulds. The aisles have stone-coped parapets, whilst the west tower and corner towers have pierced quatrefoil parapets, all above moulded cornices.

At the liturgical west end stands a central three-stage tower with a late 20th-century glazed porch to the west door. The chamfered first-stage band is interrupted by a tall pointed three-light window with transom, Y-tracery, and label-stopped hoodmould. The third stage has paired belfry openings with louvers in all faces. Flanking the tower are two bay ranges with projecting corner towers at their ends. The bays immediately flanking the principal tower contain doorways, whilst the corner towers have blind window openings at ground floor level and tall windows with ogee-headed sub-arches below the transom to the first floor. The blind opening in the left-hand bay contains a First World War memorial in the form of a pointed stone tablet. It bears a decorative foliage border with a laurel wreath and sword in the centre, inscribed: "1914 1919 / PRAISE GOD & REMEMBER / (NAMES) / THESE DIED IN WAR THAT WE AT PEACE MIGHT LIVE. / THEIR NAMES LIVETH FOR EVERMORE."

The north face has four tall aisle windows with four-centered sub-arches below the transom. It is flanked by projecting corner towers with doorways at ground floor level and tall windows with ogee sub-arches below the transom to the first floor.

The east end has a gabled central section which projects with angle buttresses and offsets. It contains a large five-light window with a four-centered arch and rectilinear tracery, inserted in 1877-78; the infilled outline of the original pointed window it replaced remains visible. The flanking corner towers have two-light windows with ogee arches and flat heads at ground floor level, and tall two-light windows with ogee sub-arches below the transom to the first floor. Below the east window is a flight of stone steps with railings descending to a crypt entrance with a double boarded door.

The south face is essentially the same as the north face, except for a small brick and stone vestry of around 1907.

The interior features cast iron columns with two orders of roll moulding supporting both the five-bay elliptically-arched nave arcade and a three-sided gallery carried on ornate iron brackets.

The church contains around 172 wall monuments in the nave, largely by Lewis of Clarence Street, Cheltenham, and predominantly dedicated to vacationing gentry and retired Indian officers and civil servants. The most ambitious is to Colonel Augustus Warburton (1783-1836) of the King's Light Infantry, erected by his fellow officers. At the east end is a stone reredos wall panel comprising five recessed panels inscribed with the Apostles' Creed and the Ten Commandments. The font dates from 1879 and was presented to the church by Reverend J H Shaw. The church retains a complete set of floral stained glass, added by Middleton in 1877-78.

Beneath the church is a barrel-vaulted crypt of brick construction containing 400 burials in multi-layer stone coffins, arranged in four rows.

The churchyard is enclosed by brick walls. The walls to the liturgical east, south, and west sides are of 19th-century date with some 20th-century stone coping, whilst the wall to the north side fronting Portland Street dates from the late 20th century with 19th-century stone coping. The Portland Street entrance is flanked by 19th-century limestone gate piers with sandstone bases; the left-hand pier has been restored in the late 20th century.