Church Of St Thomas

The Church of St Thomas is an Anglican parish church built between 1856 and 1857, with an extension in 1864, designed by SS Teulon as a memorial to Dean Richard Kenkyns. The church is constructed from local stone, squared and banded with red and grey, featuring Doulting ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof with coloured diamond banding and coped gables.

The building's plan incorporates a five-bay nave, an apsidal chancel of a half duo-decagonal shape, a narrow north aisle, a wide south aisle (extended in 1854), a north porch, and a north-east tower with a spire that also houses an organ chamber and vestry. A choir vestry was added to the south side in 1926 to match the existing style. The chancel features buttresses with two offsets on each angle, framing two-light Geometric style traceried windows with arched head-stop labels, and a traceried parapet. The south aisle has two- and three-light Geometric traceried windows, with an eaves moulding featuring ball-flower ornament. The north aisle has gables with iron finials over the two-light traceried windows, and a single-light window in the west wall. The porch has a deeply moulded outer arch with mid-20th century glazed doors, side buttresses, and three-bay arcading. The west elevation contains a five-light window to the nave and a four-light window to the south aisle. The spire features a single-stage banded tower with a three-light north window and a clock within a gabled decorative recess. Corner buttresses extend into crocketed finials, adorned with statues of the four Evangelists. Between these finials is a two-light trefoil-arched traceried open window with stone grills, set under ornamental gables. Small gabletted and pierced trefoil vents are present halfway up the spire, and the 45-meter spire is topped with an elaborate iron weathervane. An octagonal stair turret with a pitched roof is located in the south-east corner.

Inside, the roof is supported by crown-post trusses with ogee windbraces and coloured plaster infill panels. The arcades have slim columns with foliated capitals, and there is no dividing arch between the nave and chancel. The interior is characterized by extensive polychromy and stencilled decoration. An extended reredos includes an elaborately carved pulpit and font, and much of the furniture is also to Teulon’s design, including an ornate lock to the north door. The glass is tinted green, with patterned caning and vines drawn in outline. The church contains Skidmore's tubular altar rails, Wailes's glass, mosaic panels, coloured marble shafts, crocketed niches, and angel corbels, contributing to a sumptuous overall effect.