Church Of The Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity, Gidleigh

A parish church of modest size with Saxon or Norman origins, completely rebuilt in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, with some 17th-century windows and 19th-century additions. The building is constructed of large coursed blocks of granite ashlar with some granite stone rubble patching and granite ashlar detailing, mostly original. The roof is of slate, formerly thatch.

The plan comprises a nave and chancel under a continuous roof, a south aisle to the nave only with a 19th-century vestry added to the west end, a west tower with an internal stair, and a north doorway behind a 19th-century porch.

The exterior features a tall unbuttressed west tower of two stages with an embattled parapet, now missing its corner pinnacles. The tower has 2-light belfry windows, and the west side displays a 2-centred arch doorway with moulded surround below a 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery. The nave and chancel have mostly square-headed 2-light windows with round-headed lights and sunken spandrels with hoodmoulds. One window in the nave has been replaced by a tall 17th-century 3-light window with chamfered mullions. The east end of the chancel has a 3-light window with an elliptical head and hoodmould, the centre light only having a pointed arch head. The south aisle has similar windows. The 19th-century vestry is flat-topped with an embattled parapet and Transitional-style detail. A priests' door on the north side of the chancel is a segmental pointed arch. The 19th-century gabled north porch has a roof of granite slabs and displays a Norman-style outer arch, with a similar north doorway. All doors were replaced in the 19th century. Along the side of the nave, a number of 17th and early 18th-century graveslabs have been set upright and remain clearly legible.

The interior features a nave and chancel with a late 15th to early 16th-century continuous ceiled wagon roof. In the nave only the ridge purlin is visible, while the chancel has moulded ribs and purlins with some plain carved bosses, possibly 19th-century replacements. The south aisle roof matches the nave. A tall chamfered tower arch leads to a three-bay arcade with monolithic octagonal piers with soffit-chamfered caps and low arches with double chamfered arch rings. The walls are plastered.

The reredos, formerly from the Church of St. Michael at Chagford, was made in 1868. The pulpit and lectern were made in 1853. All three pieces are constructed of granite and carved in Gothic style by John Agget, and are described as most unusual. The sanctuary features 16th-century-style 19th-century oak wainscotting. A plain 19th-century Gothic timber altar rail and stalls are present, with nave seating now comprising 20th-century chairs. The south chapel altar is a 17th-century oak table with heavy turned legs.

A 15th-century granite font with an octagonal bowl, moulded stem and chamfered plinth is fitted with a probably 17th-century ogival oak hood. The oak chancel screen is original but was altered in the mid or late 16th century. It comprises five bays with a central doorway, blind ogival tracery on the wainscotting, and windows with delicate Perpendicular tracery (Pevsner's Type A). When the rood gallery was removed, the coved parapet was taken down and the spandrels were filled with applied foliate motifs separated by distinctively carved posts, all in Renaissance style. Two bands of the original undercut frieze have been reused, though some secondary gessowork is evident. The rear is undecorated and thankfully lacks the 19th-century paint that adorns the front, complete with transfer pictures of saints.

The east window of the aisle retains some 15th-century glass featuring fragments of St. John and Our Lady with flowers in delicate grisaille. There are no memorials. This is an attractive and little-modernised Dartmoor church.