Church of the Holy Trinity

Details

BRISTOL

ST5777 CHURCH ROAD, Westbury On Trym 901-1/26/2047 (South East side) 08/01/59 Church of the Holy Trinity

GV I

Church. A collegiate church from 1194, early C13 nave and aisles, C15 chancel, chapels and tower. MATERIALS: rubble with limestone dressings; roof not visible. PLAN: N and S chapels, chancel, aisled nave, S porch and W tower. Early English nave and aisles, with Perpendicular aisle windows, chapels, chancel and tower. EXTERIOR: the polygonal chancel end has 3-light Perpendicular windows, separated by narrow buttresses with slender diagonally-set buttresses rising from the lower water table to crocketed pinnacles above the crenellated gable parapet, and expressive human gargoyles heads to the drip; below is a blocked 4-centred crypt window; a low C19 vestry to the N has a 3-light window with flat head and a parapet, and fine E windows to the chapels, 4-centred arches with 6 lights to the S and 4 to the N, in shallow crenellated gables; below the S window the stonework is striped limestone and sandstone rubble. N elevation has 2-bay chapel and 4-bay nave, separated by a square, crenellated stair turret; 3-light Perpendicular windows divided by buttresses as the chancel, but without pinnacles to the nave; the C19 W bay extends out level with the tower; Perpendicular 5-light square-headed window in the nave gable, and paired trefoil-headed clerestory windows, the E one larger and, like the nave gable window, to light the rood loft. 3-bay S chapel and a chamfered stair turret with 2-light square-headed window and a pair of small quatrefoil panels set below it; 4-bay nave, with a shallow, quatrefoil-headed window to the W and the central of the remaining 3 set lower down. A large, square, 2-storey porch with small diagonal buttresses to the ground floor; the first floor, with a small trefoil-headed window, slightly overhangs a drip mould; a wide 2-centred arched doorway with casement mould and 2-leaf oak gate with Perpendicular open panels; inside, the C13 doorway has a continuous inner arch and an outer one with Purbeck marble shafts and stiff leaf captials. Three C13 stepped lancets in the W window to the S aisle, with a square turret in the angle with the porch; a massive 4-stage tower with diagonal buttresses and a SW octagonal stair turret, with a small door to the base; 2-centred W doorway has a tracery-panelled door and strap hinges, 4-centred Perpendicular second-stage window, under a C19 niche with side pinnacles and a crocketed ogee hood, containing a seated figure of Bishop Carpenter; 2-light louvred windows with an elongated quatrefoil to the third stage, and clocks to the third-stage string; gargoyles to the drip, a crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles and a spirelet to the stair turret with open cross windows and a fine C19 openwork top. INTERIOR: C19 reredos, a central wide crocketed ogee arch with a tableau of the Last Supper, flanked by ogee-arched panels with crocketed pinnacles between; 2 pointed arches to the N chapel on piers with 4 attached shafts with small moulded capitals, and 3 taller arches to the S chapel, which has a door and rood loft openings beside the aisle arch; shallow roof with mouchettes above tie beams, on head corbels. 3-bay nave, the N arcade with round piers, moulded capitals and chamfered arches and a doorway and steps up to the pulpit at the E end, and a wider-spaced S arcade with thicker piers and small foliage decorations to the capitals; the walls W of the arcade are blank, leading to a tall, pointed W arch on piers and steps down to the W door; clerestory windows with splayed reveals and segmental hoodmoulds, and corbel heads to wall posts and tie-beam roof. N aisle arch on octagonal capitals and foliate corbels, and beneath it a door to the the stair turret with openings above to the rood loft. Wide S aisle has a shallow piscina and 3 sedilia, with deeply moulded arches, capitals and attached shafts. FITTINGS: C15 timber altar rail with open, cusped ogee arches, bishop's chair with a ribbed back, bound chest with a lock and 2 padlocks, plain chest incribed as a gift from Jeremy Innys, 1759, brass lectern with a barleysugar stand and 4 supports, large C19 pulpit with marble shafts, C19 font, octagonal on marble shafts, and poppy-head pews. MEMORIALS: wall memorial in the S chapel c1610, a painted aedicule containing a kneeling man with a shield above; marble wall tablet to Martha Jacobs d.1616, an aedicule with panelled pilasters, a triglyph frieze and urn on top; wall memorial to William Jeffries d.1752, a pedimented panel beneath an obelisk, with rocaille decoration; marble wall memorial to James Morgan d.1780 with fluted pilasters and a shield on top. HISTORICAL NOTE: a Benedictine monastery existed in Westbury, perhaps as early as AD 720, which became the earliest reformed house in England in 962. The S chapel is known as Canynge's after the great Bristol merchant William Canynge who was Dean of Westbury 1469-74. Although the interior was restored in C19 the exterior is good, and the church forms an important group with Westbury College (qv), its benefactor being associated with the building of the chancel and N chapel. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 473; Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 20).

Listing NGR: ST5733577403

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

379174

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 473
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 20

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