Church of the Holy Trinity, Leighton

Church of the Holy Trinity, Leighton

The Church of the Holy Trinity at Leighton is an extravagant example of Decorated Gothic architecture. It comprises a nave with aisles, a south porch, a northwest tower with spire, a southeast chapel, and a north vestry. The building is constructed from coursed, rock-faced Cefn stone with steeply pitched slate roofs behind coped gables at the nave and chancel.

Exterior Features

The windows and doorways throughout feature hood moulds with head or foliage stops, while all doors are fitted with ornate strap hinges and studding. The five-bay nave displays flying buttresses, ashlar eaves with a plain corbel table, and alternate paired and triple lancets in the clerestorey. The aisle windows are two-light openings, each with a different style of Decorated tracery, and are unified by a continuous sill band. The nave's west window contains five lights; the south aisle has a circular west window.

The south porch has angle buttresses and a coped gable with an empty statue niche below the ridge. Its doorway features open tracery beneath the arch. The southeast chapel is octagonal with a pyramidal slate roof, stepped buttresses, and two-light south and east windows sharing a continuous sill band. On the chapel's west side is a sculpture of a woman holding a book amidst foliage. A detached pier with a conical cap stands on the west side of the chapel, linked to the south aisle by a pointed arch. Between this arch and the chapel is a doorway beneath a trefoil window and steep gable leading to the lobby between aisle and chapel.

The chancel features ashlar eaves and machicolations in its north and south walls above a row of five cusped lancets, with a five-light east window. The north vestry has angle buttresses, two paired lancets with sill band on the north side together with stone steps to a crypt, and a doorway on the east side. This doorway has a tympanum bearing the date 1853 and a Green Man in relief.

The north aisle windows match those of the south aisle. The three-stage tower has angle buttresses. The lower stages are defined by continuous string courses, beneath the lower of which runs a frieze of blank arches with foliage in the spandrels. The tower's lower stage houses a second porch, now the main entrance, featuring an elaborate north doorway with two orders of attached shafts and a moulded arch incorporating a vine trail with a Green Man at the ridge. The gablet above has a finial and beneath it a cross with foliage. The doorway's hood mould has stops in the form of winged angels bearing scrolls reading 'Fear God' and 'Honour the king'. A three-light west window with trefoil-headed light and continuous hood mould and string course is also present. The middle stage contains a small narrow window in each face. The upper stage has triple stepped lancets with louvres above which are machicolations. The tall broach spire is decorated with crockets and three tiers of lucarnes.

Interior

The interior maintains lofty proportions with a tall chancel arch and receives equally rich treatment as the exterior. The five-bay north and south arcades have piers with attached shafts with fillets, moulded capitals, and arches. The clerestorey windows are fitted with sill bands.

The nave possesses a hammer-beam roof on wall shafts which end above the arcade piers and terminate in foliage capitals and head corbels. Brackets support the hammer beams and bear carved angels on their undersides. Open tracery appears above and below the hammer beams, and the roof has boarded panels. The aisle roofs feature arched braces with tracery above.

The chancel has a keeled wagon roof with ribs embossed with foliage and boarded panels. It is faced in ashlar with five-bay blind arcades under crocketed gables in the north and south walls. The north and south windows have sill bands with billets and head stops, above which runs a cornice incorporating vine trails and billets with head stops. The east wall contains a five-bay reredos with crocketed gables and tracery below, foliage capitals, and shafts with fillets. Blank panels bear engraved texts from the Old and New Testaments, including the Lord's Prayer.

The original stained glass by Forrest and Bromley of Liverpool survives in its entirety. The west window contains mainly Old Testament scenes with emblems of the twelve Tribes of Israel in the tracery lights. The east window displays Christ and the four Evangelists represented in niches. In the aisle windows, the monogram of John Naylor is prominent. The floor consists entirely of Minton tiles, arranged in richer patterns in the chancel.

The Naylor chapel is reached from a small lobby east of the south aisle and has an external south door. Inside the chapel is a sculpture of an angel seated on a rock by Georgina Naylor. Tablets to members of the Naylor family are mounted on the walls.

Furnishings and Fittings

Pews span the nave leaving no central aisle and are arranged hierarchically: the front three pews have arm rests and ends with poppy heads; pews behind have square-headed ends with blind tracery; each aisle has a continuous bench against the wall. At the east end of the south aisle is a family pew. The pulpit is richly decorated, hexagonal in form, and mounted on a pedestal. The communion rails feature open-tracery panels. The font is hexagonal, fashioned from polished stone, with a New Testament inscription around the rim.