Church Of Holy Trinity

Church of Holy Trinity

An Anglican parish church built in 1837 to a design by architect Ebenezer Trotman, located on Oldbury Road in Tewkesbury. The church was constructed to serve a rapidly expanding residential area called The Oldbury, which developed after the enclosure of Oldbury Fields in 1811.

The building is constructed of English bond brickwork with limestone ashlar dressings and features a steeply pitched slate roof. It follows a plan of a 7-bay lofty nave with a narrow added chancel and a projecting central west porch contained within a full-height pointed arch.

The exterior is dominated by a high brick pointed arch entrance front with 3 chamfered brick orders, topped by a 4-centred lancet in the gable. The entrance is flanked by diagonal buttresses in 3 offsets with stone weatherings and octagonal brick pepper-pot turrets crowned with stone cappings and finials. The projecting porch itself features a moulded stone ogee-gable and contains a pair of plank doors with decorative strap hinges beneath a plank tympanum in a pointed arch. The main gable has a gable swept down to haunched kneelers with diagonal buttresses in 3 offsets, a plinth with 2 chamfered offsets, a moulded raking cornice and blocking course, and moulded saddle-back coping. Each side of the set-forward unit contains a plank door in a segmental moulded arch.

The north and south sides feature 7 lancets set in double chamfered brick jambs and pointed arches with brick drips, separated by buttresses in 3 offsets; the end buttresses are diagonal. A square central ridge turret rises from the roof with a slate pyramid, wood louvres, and copper-clad skirt. The lower narrow chancel bay has brick coping and cornice above a 4-light Perpendicular-style window with 2 transoms, diagonal buttresses, and flanking hipped roof vestries. The east gable has a raised centre section with a gablet and cross above a lancet with louvres.

The interior forms a single space of 6 bays with a double gallery at the west end, one bay chancel, and a shallow projection containing the narrow sanctuary. The ceiling is a flat boarded ceiling above ties to composite trusses on braces rising from stone corbels. The walls are plain with moulded segmental pointed rere-arches and jambs to the windows highlighted. Small red quarry tiles form the floor of the aisles with yellow slips to cast-iron gratings covering heating ducts.

The galleries are raised on octagonal stone columns supporting basket-handle arches with panelled fronts. Above these is the original panelled and glazed entrance lobby, with side access to the galleries via wooden stairs. The sanctuary bay is separated from the nave by a 4-centred moulded arch and features a painted celure, stained oak reredos and panelling including an open screen to the organ gallery on the left with a 2-light traceried opening to the nave. The windows contain 1850s and later stained glass, particularly the first three windows on each side of the nave.

The original boxed pews in stained pine occupy the nave in central and 2 side blocks, though some have been removed at the front to accommodate a projecting platform. An octagonal stone font stands in the church. Various tablets are present, including a dedicatory panel to the left of the chancel commemorating John Terrett, benefactor (died 1852), which gives the consecration date as 30 August 1837.

The interior represents a remarkably unchanged example of pre-Tractarian phase Anglican church design. The congregation was noted in the 19th century for its Low Church sympathies. The church remains a simple but distinctive structure that reflects the architectural preferences of the period and the needs of its expanding parish.