Church of the Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity

An Anglican church built in 1934 to the designs of Harold Stratton Davies, employing a stripped-down 15th-century Gothic style. The church is constructed of Coleford red brick laid in Flemish bond, with Guiting stone dressings, a Delabole slate roof, and a copper-roofed fleche. The cast-iron rainwater heads are by Alfred Bucknell.

The church is orientated approximately west to east and consists of a five-bay nave with north and south arcades and aisles. At the east end is a two-bay chancel and canted sanctuary, with a chapel to the north and an organ chamber and vestry rooms to the south. The west end contains a baptistery, flanked by south and north porches.

The west end of the nave is framed by offset buttresses and divided by a horizontal stone band, with the baptistery occupying the lower level and the west nave window above. The baptistery features a symmetrical window arrangement of a four-light, four-centred arched window with a single-light, four-centred arched window to either side. The west window is set within a slight projection with narrow offset buttresses and comprises a three-light Perpendicular-style window beneath a tri-partite louvered window with a triangular head. The west elevation of the flat-roofed north and south porches contains a rectangular, single-light window; the west end of both aisles is blind. The flat-roofed north porch is positioned at the right-hand end of the north elevation. It has a stone, double-chamfered, arched doorway with a stone cross above the keystone, with its arms forming part of the stone capping to the roof, and timber plank double-doors with decorative iron hinges. The five-bay north aisle has five three-light Perpendicular-style windows with cusped heads. To the left-hand end of the aisle is an additional porch with a moulded stone, flat-headed doorway, a stone shield above, and a timber plank door with decorative iron door furniture. The two bays of the chapel at the right-hand end of the north elevation each contain a two-centred brick arch with a recessed brick panel housing a two-light, pointed-arch window with cusped heads and a trefoil above. The east elevation includes the tall, central bay of the sanctuary, with a three-light, pointed-arch east window. Beneath the east window is a stone Greek cross, and above is a moulded brick cross. The moulded brick cross is repeated above the east window of the north chapel, which is set-back to the right of the sanctuary. The set-back, single-storey vestry rooms to the left of the sanctuary have a gable to the right-hand bay with a three-light window beneath and a flat-roof to the left-hand bay with a round-headed doorway. The south elevation of the vestry has a flat-roof to the right-hand bay with two two-light windows beneath, and is gabled to the left-hand bay with a three-light window. The south elevation of the south aisle and south porch are treated identically to the north aisle and porch.

The interior is entered through the internal north and south porch double-doors, which are square-panelled with diamond-shaped, leaded windows to the upper section. In line with the porches, at the west end of the nave, is the baptistery, which has arched recesses to the three windows. The nave has a barrel-vaulted roof supported on stone corbels and features a parquet floor. The five-bay stone arcades have octagonal piers without capitals, and pointed, double-chamfered arches with a corresponding double-brick arch above. The aisle windows are set within splayed openings formed from brick jambs with a pointed, chamfered stone arch and a corresponding single-brick arch above. At the east end of the north aisle is a chamfered, four-centred arch, with chamfered pointed arch above, which leads to the north chapel. The lancet-style east window to the chapel is set within a recessed, pointed arch. The pointed, double-chamfered chancel arch has a corresponding double-brick arch above. To either side of the chancel are pairs of pointed, chamfered arches with a corresponding single brick arch above, and a further pointed arch to the sanctuary. The arches to the south side of the chancel are open, whilst those to the north side house the organ and the door to the vestry rooms, with a two-light window above. The vestry rooms retain their plan, panelled doors with decorative ironwork by Alfred Bucknell, and fitted furniture. The sanctuary has a brick arched recess to its east wall, with the aumbry to the north wall and the piscina to the south wall, and features a stone floor.

The church contains a tall, square font with chamfered corners given by the freemasons of Gloucester; an oak pulpit on a stone base; an oak lectern; oak choir stalls; an oak communion rail; and a pipe organ brought to the church from a redundant church in Gloucester and overhauled in 1988. Panelling below the organ was given in 1964. Original folding wooden chairs with 'wavy' backs are fixed to the floor and grouped in fives. Two war memorial plaques are positioned at the west end of the church.

The church contains a significant collection of stained glass windows using fragments of mostly foreign glass from the 15th to 18th centuries, given to the church by the Reverend Samuel Lysons. The glass was originally in the east window of the early-19th-century Church of St Luke, Gloucester, which was demolished in 1934, and was reset here by William Beck that same year. The west window contains an assortment of 15th-century fragments; the two windows to the north side of the chapel contain 16th to 18th-century German or Dutch panels and roundels; and the east window to the chapel is by Molly Meager, dated 1989.