Details
WEYMOUTH
SY6778NE TRINITY ROAD
873-1/23/384 (South side)
12/12/53 Church of the Holy Trinity
GV II*
Anglican parish church. 1834, extended and reoriented 1888;
the altar to the S. By Philip Wyatt, the sum of »1100 towards
the cost given by Rev. George Chamberlaine, the founder; new
work of 1886-87 to the designs of GR Crickmay, estimated cost
»4000 final cost approx »7000, including high retaining wall
to the S (qv Chapelhay Steps).
MATERIALS: Portland ashlar street frontage, remainder dressed
and squared or rubble Portland stone with cream limestone
dressings, slate roofs.
PLAN: nave with gallery, E and W transepts, shallow chancel,
deep lobby with flanking octagonal spaces, one with staircase,
W porch, vestry, undercroft. A central fleche is shown on the
Crickmay perspective. In Perpendicular style.
EXTERIOR: the gabled street front (N) has a large 7-light
deep-set window in a 4-centred arch, to a deep splayed
weathered sill above a 4-centred doorway with multiple orders
to a pair of plank doors, under a square label course, and on
a flight of divided steps with external balustrade; the steps
are carried over the low-level pavement on a brick half-barrel
vault.
To each side of the low-pitched gable with saddle-back coping
and embellished frieze is a square turret, with paired slender
buttresses; the top section of the buttress is set diagonally,
cropped at the parapet; (the Crickmay Contract drawings, dated
29 March 1886, show these as square buttresses carried through
as pinnacles). On the right return the turret stops to a lofty
square buttress with pinnacle, and with a pinnacled statue
niche at low level. A small 2-light window at low level.
The W (liturgical S) front has paired gables over large
5-light windows, with 2 windows in the S wall. To the left are
two 3-light windows high to the nave, under a casement-mould
eaves with ball-flower, and with dividing buttress to
pinnacle. In the re-entrant angle is a gabled porch over
pointed doorway, with a small 2-light on the return wall; the
gable, with saddle-back coping, contains panelled decoration
in the upper part.
To the right of the transept is the flat-roofed vestry beneath
a plain wall with 2-light window, and to the right a flight of
steps down to the nave level. The S gable wall is in rubble
banded with ashlar, to a saddle-back coping, with lower
projecting gabled chancel having a 5-light window; this is set
very close to the high retaining wall carrying Trinity Terrace
(qv).
The E front, in rubble banded with ashlar, has a 4-light and
7-light windows to the transept, the larger in a slightly
projecting gable, and a 4-light to the right in the nave.
INTERIOR: inside the lobby are broad 4-centred arched openings
with panelled glazed doors, and on 3 steps. To the left are
the gallery stairs, to the right was originally the baptistry.
The nave has plain plastered walls, and a 2-bay arcade each
side to the transepts, on lofty piers to high bases and
moulded 4-centred arches. A plain chancel bay narrows to the
sanctuary under a similar arch.
The floor is in square red tile or wood block. The low-pitched
panelled ceiling is in 9 bays, with a central ventilator, and
with moulded ribs to small panels with florets. A raised bay
over the main N window.
The gallery has a painted panelled front, and has been
underbuilt with a wall in acoustic tiling, but the set-back
original supporting wall has a series of 4-centred arches. To
each side of the nave is a deep arched recess, with brass
memorial tablets.
The W transept has a double ceiling on arch-braced principals,
carried centrally to a traceried beam with moulded soffit, on
bold brackets with carved stone angels. The Contract drawings
show a 10 x 6ins rolled steel joist to the valley above the
beam. The chancel has linenfold panelling of 1923, and the
sanctuary has Gothic open tracery screens above small-scale
panelling, with central triptych.
FITTINGS: plain pews, alabaster font (1888), octagonal pulpit
of 1903, alabaster with figures, brass lectern, wrought-iron
chancel rail, triptych reredos in Gothic detail, with 3:5:3
panels and central Crucifixion. The triptych was provided by
public subscription in memory of Canon Weldon, in 1918; the
riddel posts are of 1950.
MEMORIALS: various memorials and inscriptions, including one
in the E transept to Francis Briggs Sowter vicar 1884-1890
'during which period this church was enlarged and
transformed'. The earliest monument, in white marble, is to
John Willimans d.1836, by Hellyer, in the E transept.
STAINED GLASS: the great window above the entrance contains
heraldic shields, with a central feature containing a Hebrew
inscription ('God the Father'); in the E transept most of the
glass was lost through bomb damage in World War II; here the
altar painting is based on a Van Dyke.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the parish was originally in the Bristol
Diocese, but returned to Salisbury in 1836; it was formerly
part of Wyke Regis; a Chapel of St Nicholas was located above
and S of the present building, and in the undercroft is a
section of one of the pillars from this building. The first
church was oriented normally, but by 1885 was deemed too
small, and in enlargement was re-oriented, with the altar to
the S. At first a scheme was agreed 'by arrangement between Mr
A Clarke, builder, and the Committee', but fortunately an
alternative scheme by Crickmay was adopted; the renewed church
was opened on 12 April 1987. The 1970 guidebook includes a
photograph taken before the 1887 rebuilding. There were
galleries at both ends of the original nave.
Apart from its intrinsic architectural interest, and unusual
scheme of development, the church is important in the
townscape of Weymouth, occupying a significant position on the
axis of the Town Bridge (qv).
(RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 334; The Buildings
of England: Newman J & Pevsner N: Dorset: London: 1972-: 451;
Contract drawings by GR Crickmay: Dorchester: 1886-).
Listing NGR: SY6785778650
