CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY

CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, TRINITY ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1369476
Date first listed:: 28-Jun-1972
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY
Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, TRINITY ROAD

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Date:: 2002-10-05
Reference:: IOE01/09075/21
Rights:: © Mr Gary Irvine. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1369476
Date first listed:: 28-Jun-1972
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY
Statutory Address 1:: CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, TRINITY ROAD

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, TRINITY ROAD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Oxfordshire
District:: Oxford (District Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SP 55451 06867

Details

612/25/854 TRINITY ROAD 28-JUN-1972 HEADINGTON QUARRY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY

II

Urban parish church. 1848-9 by George Gilbert Scott in the Decorated style. Nave, chancel, N aisle with Lady Chapel, large bellcote.

MATERIALS: Coursed rubble limestone with ashlar detailing (stone locally quarried from Quarry Farm Pit). Red tile roofs.

EXTERIOR: Nave with two-light and lancet windows and tall porch to S. W end with two windows, double bellcote and diagonal buttresses. Low N aisle with squat, square-headed windows in late medieval style. C20 vestry, single-storeyed with flat roof, extending N from E end of aisle. Chancel of same height as nave, with to S two two-light windows and low door, and to E diagonal buttresses and three-light window.

INTERIOR: Little altered, apart from addition of Lady Chapel at E end of N aisle in 1990s. Limestone arcade, chancel arch, and window surounds, otherwise plastered and limewashed. Stone pulpit and font. Stained glass in E window by Sir Ninian Comper. Plain benches in nave and aisle.

HISTORY: In 1847 Bishop Wilberforce preached a sermon which marked the start of fundraising efforts, intended to provide an Anglican place of worship for Headington Quarry, 'a hamlet, the peculiar circumstances of which demand the sympathy and assistance of Christian neighbours'. The church was built 1848-9. It was designed by George Gilbert Scott and the contractors were Wyatt's of Oxford.

Worshippers at Holy Trinity have included the novelist C.S. Lewis (for 30 years a member of the congregation) and his brother Warren ('Warnie'); a plaque marks where they sat, and a Narnia window was consecrated in 1991. Both are buried in the churchyard, as are William Merry Kimber, the father of the English Morris dance tradition, and Robert Doyne, eye surgeon.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: This is an early commission by George Gilbert Scott, a leading figure in the Victorian Gothic Revival. This is an assured design and a convincing evocation of a late medieval church. The association with C.S. Lewis is also of note. It has further historic interest as the fruits of a characteristically evangelical C19 church-building campaign.

SOURCES: J. Sherwood and N. Pevsner, Buildings of England: Oxfordshire (1974), 337; K. Clark, The Gothic Revival (1928, 1962); Gavin Stamp, 'Scott, Sir George Gilbert (1811-1878)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; Victoria County History of Oxfordshire 5 (1957), 167.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 245915
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.