Former Holy Trinity Church

Former Holy Trinity Church

A former parish church built in 1880, designed by the architect Ewan Christian. The building was closed for worship in the late 20th century and converted to 12 flats in 2001.

The church is constructed of rock-faced light-brown sandstone with freestone dressings and a graded slate roof with a lead spire. The plan comprises a nave and chancel under a single roof, a north-west tower and porch, north and south aisles, a south vestry, and a parish room.

The exterior is in the Early-English style and features a dominant asymmetrical tower and spire. The tower has a polygonal west turret in its lower two stages. The north doorway has three orders of shafts beneath a tympanum containing a cusped circle, with a trumeau below. The second stage features three blind arches on red sandstone shafts, with a single lancet on the north side. The taller bell stage contains double lancets in deep splays with louvres, topped by a tall pyramidal spire with lucarnes. The nave has a west doorway with nook shafts and a diaperwork tympanum of red and yellow sandstone. Above this are four lancets with circles in the spandrels, and three stepped lights in the gable. The nave and chancel feature eight clerestorey lancets and terminate in an apsidal chancel with lancets, a sill band, and an impost band carried over the windows as hood moulds. The south aisle has two-light plate-tracery windows and a west window of three stepped lights under plate-tracery circles and a relieving arch. The north aisle comprises four cross-gabled bays, each with three stepped lancets, with an entrance between the third and fourth bays in a shallow gabled projection featuring a continuous chamfer to the doorway. The south side has a hipped vestry and a polygonal parish room set at right angles to it.

Ewan Christian (1814–95) was a prolific architect who specialised in church work, commencing practice in 1842 and serving as architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1851, a position that brought him numerous commissions, particularly for chancels. He became known for delivering projects on time and within budget. His work is generally routine, though his best churches, notably St Mark in Leicester and Holy Trinity in Folkestone, are regarded as significant 19th-century achievements. Fixtures, including stained glass, were removed in 1998 prior to the building's conversion to dwellings.

The interior was not inspected at the time of survey in July 2009.