Church Of Holy Trinity

Church of Holy Trinity

A Grade I listed church dating from the 13th to 15th centuries, with a tower added in 1719. The building is constructed of rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs, with lead covering to the chancel and north porch. It comprises a west tower, nave with north and south aisles, chancel with north vestry, and both north and south porches.

The west tower, dated 1719, rises through three stages. It has shallow clasping buttresses to the ground floor only. The west window contains two segmental-arched lights with a circle in plate tracery above, surrounded by chamfered round-arched surrounds with imposts and keystone, with scrolls and date inscribed on the spandrels. The first floor features single-light chamfered windows to the ringing chamber on the west and south elevations, with a matching door on the east giving access to the nave roof, and a clock on the north side. Four light vents pierce the south side to serve the stair turret. The second floor belfry openings on all four sides match the west window design. A plain parapet with small obelisks at the corners completes the tower.

The south aisle contains an early 14th-century structure with a stepped plinth and string course. Three bays are divided by shallow offset buttresses which continue above the parapet in the 15th century as crocketted ogee niches containing armorial shields. Two windows feature 2-light Y-tracery with trefoil-cusped lights in hollow-chamfered surrounds with labels having heads on stops. Two animal gargoyles enliven the external walls. The parapet carries roll moulding on its coping. The east window of the south aisle has three trefoil-headed lights under a plain label. The south porch, dating to the 15th century, is gabled with a shallow-pitch roof and stepped diagonal buttresses. Its opening displays alternate hollow and roll moulding with a label and no capitals. Above stands a sundial dated 1846. Inside the porch, stone benches line the walls, and the south doorway carries hollow-chamfered moulding with a stopped label and no capitals.

The north aisle mirrors the south aisle's early 14th-century design, with stepped plinth, string course, and buttresses as on the south side, though these have crested tops to copings resting on small decorated corbels. The two 2-light windows match those on the south, with two animal gargoyles present. The north aisle east window contains three trefoil-headed lights in a hollow-chamfered surround. The north porch, dating to the 14th century, is gabled with stepped diagonal buttresses. Its opening carries hollow-chamfered moulding without capitals and a label with weathered heads to stops. Above is a square plaque within hollow and roll-moulded surround, containing a coat of arms of the Scrope family below a weathered head. Inside, stone benches are positioned against the walls. The north doorway features a deeply-chamfered pointed arch with pierced tracery in the apex, shafts with Early English capitals, and hollow and roll moulding to the label with heads on stops that form a tall gabled canopy above the doorway.

The chancel dates to the 13th century. Its south side contains two shallow offset buttresses between three double-chamfered lancet windows, the westernmost incorporating a mullion and the middle one positioned above a priest's door with chamfered surround. The east window holds five trefoil-headed lights with trefoils in plate tracery above the outer lights, and is crowned by a gable cross. The north vestry rises through two storeys; each floor on the east side features a flat-headed 2-light window with trefoil cusping to the semicircular-headed lights, finished with roll moulding to the coping.

Internally, the church displays richly decorated medieval work. An early 14th-century double-chamfered tower arch leads to tall double-chamfered three-bay arcades rising on octagonal piers, with a corresponding early 14th-century double-chamfered chancel arch. The south chancel windows carry deep double chamfers with shafting and bold dog-tooth moulding. A piscina with trefoiled head and irregular trefoils in the spandrels survives in the chancel. The chancel floor contains a brass to Sir Simon Wensley, who died in 1394, and another to Oswald Dykes, Rector, who died in 1607. Richly carved bench ends dated 1527 terminate the choir stalls. A 15th-century rood screen spans the tower arch with thin traceried divisions, and a 17th-century communion rail remains in situ. The Scrope family pew consists of a 17th-century classical front with pendant round arches; at the back stands a richly carved early 16th-century parclose screen originally made for the Scrope chantry in Easby Abbey and brought to Wensley at the Dissolution. The nave contains 17th-century benches and some 18th-century box pews, with an 18th-century double-decker pulpit. An octagonal font dated 1662 retains its contemporary wooden cover with pineapple finial. A wooden box with 15th-century traceried panelling, possibly originally a reliquary, has been converted to an alms box with an old padlock. At the west end of the nave lies a medieval grave cover with floriate cross. A black marble memorial to Henry and Richard Scrope, who died in 1525, adorns the north wall. The south wall carries a memorial to Mathew Bateman, who died in 1677, and other benefactors. Fragments of medieval wall paintings survive on the north wall, and fragments of medieval stained glass remain in the east window of the north aisle. A Royal coat of arms dated 1701 in an elegant frame, bearing the arms of Lord Bolton on its reverse, hangs at the west end. A standard of the 'Loyal Dales' Volunteers, raised in response to the Napoleonic threat, is also preserved within the church.