Church of the Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity

An Anglican parish church built in Decorated Gothic style, constructed of pale brown squared sandstone rubble banded in purple sandstone rubble, with Bath stone ashlar bands and Bath stone dressings. The roof is slate with coped gables.

The church comprises a nave, south porch-tower, and chancel, with a later north aisle and north lean-to vestry with a subsequent gabled addition. The walls feature a high battered base and two broad flush bicolour bands, each consisting of two bands of purple stone between three bands of thin ashlar, with subtle variations in width. These bands continue around the entire building, though the upper band is lower on the chancel. An eaves band contains nogged brick between two courses of ashlar. Buttresses are positioned at the nave's east end.

The windows are set flush with ogee and hollow mouldings, featuring bicolour voussoirs and a thin course of greenish slate outlining the voussoirs. The chancel has a tall east three-light window with a spurred quatrefoil head, and a south wall two-light window with a circle in the head and cusped single lancet windows. The nave has two two-light south side windows set higher than the chancel windows and above the lower bicolour band, with pointed quatrefoils, alongside a single lancet window in the porch tower. A large west four-light window consists of two pairs of lancets; the flat head dates to 1981 and replaced an original pointed head with three foiled circles and bicolour voussoirs.

The porch tower has two stages with an east side polygonal stair turret featuring a slated half-octagonal roof. An unusual two-stage slate roof has a band of louvred timber between the stages, with the top stage being steep, bellcast, and featuring a short ridge running west to east with iron cross cresting. The pointed ogee-moulded south entry has a deep hoodmould with carved flower stops and a cusped arch, echoed in the unusual boarding of the double doors, which have wrought iron hinges and small pierced glazed trefoils in the heads. Inside is a pointed chamfered door and a narrow pointed door to the stair, with 20th-century flooring and dado. Above the doorway the first stage displays bicolour bands as on the nave and an ashlar cinquefoil under a moulded cornice between the stages. The second stage contains tall two-light pointed bell-lights to the south and west with a ringed column shaft, quatrefoil in the head, and bicolour voussoirs. Ashlar quoins, chamfered to the upper stage, a cornice between stages with billet moulding, and moulded brackets under the eaves complete the detailing. The stair turret has one small northeast light above the upper bicolour band, a moulded cornice carried around at nave eaves level, and a short windowless stage above under a slate five-sided steep roof.

The lean-to north aisle comprises five bays with alternating two-light and three-light windows and raised piers between them, displaying polychrome banding and a pointed two-light west window. A catslide roof covers the aisle. The chancel north has a lean-to vestry and gabled organ-chamber, with the vestry having a large gabled addition running north. A west shouldered-headed doorway and three north windows, with the centre one taller, are present. Rock-faced red stone broad bands appear at sill level and in the gable. A single-light window serves the lean-to east end.

The interior has plastered and painted walls with an ashlar pointed north arcade featuring keeled quatrefoil piers with moulded caps and bases, moulded arches with hoodmoulds, and carved head stops depicting portraits of a bishop, vicar, and two churchwardens. The chancel arch has continuous ogee moulding with subtle variation in the acuteness of the arch and the outermost moulding. The nave roof is a scissor-truss design with notched edges to the trusses and wall-posts on corbels. Aisle roofs have similar notching with wall-posts on the south side on corbels carrying large angle braces. Windows have flat heads and ashlar ringed shafts. The aisle has an east pointed doorway with double panelled doors.

The chancel has a panelled roof in seven cants with timber stop-chamfered ribs and plaster panels. The north side has a pointed arch infilled by an organ and a pointed diagonally-boarded door to the vestry. The organ-chamber is a lean-to; the vestry is a lean-to with an added room to the north.

Fittings include a former chancel screen, now on the west wall dating to around 1860, in timber Gothic with a 4-1-4 bay arrangement with attractive brass inserts in the open upper panels of the outer bays, open spandrels of the centre trefoil-headed arch, and open panels along the top under a brattished cornice. Pitch pine pews line the nave with a tiled centre aisle. A mid-20th-century Gothic altar, reredos, later 20th-century stalls from around 1968, and a font are present. A 20th-century eagle lectern stands in the church. An organ of 1886 by P. Conacher occupies a minimal Gothic timber case with painted pipes. An oak pulpit of 1891 has a removed base and displays panelled Gothic detailing. Chancel steps and tile floors are covered by 20th-century carpeting.

Stained glass includes an east window of 1956 by G. Maile & Co depicting a Crucifixion with Saints Mary and John. The north aisle contains: the first two-light window features Saints Elizabeth and Margaret by G. Maile Studios, 1970; the second three-light window, dating to around 1889, depicts "Suffer the Children" and is probably by Heaton Butler & Bayne; the third two-light window of 1916 by Powell of Whitefriars shows Saints George and Nicholas with slightly Arts and Crafts influenced figures on clear grounds, designed by J. Hogan; the fourth three-light window dates to around 1958 and depicts Saint David with daffodil and rose motifs in the side lights; the fifth two-light window from 1936 shows Martha and Mary in conventional style. The chancel south single window dates to around 1878 and is signed by J. Jennings of 96 Clapham Road, depicting Saint Cecilia.