Reasons for Designation
Holy Trinity Worthing is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* the confident scale of this church of 1882-88 by Victorian architect Henry Edward Coe, with its landmark tower and spire;
* historic interest in evidencing the expansion of Worthing westwards from the 1860s;
* well-surviving interior complete with original pews, font, stained glass and a particularly fine Victorian reredos and a Jacobean pulpit from an older church.
Details
753/0/10055 SHELLEY ROAD
17-AUG-09 Holy Trinity Church
II
Church, 1882-88, by Henry Edward Coe (1926-1885) and Stephen Robinson; vestry of 1894; church hall of 1970; other later alterations.
PLAN: aisled nave, chancel, north transept with porch, north-western porch, an octagonal vestry to the north-east and a large tower with spire at the west end of the north aisle. A 1970s hall is linked to the building's south side, where the church backs onto neighbouring streets; this is not of special interest.
MATERIALS: red brick in English bond with stone dressings and a tiled roof.
EXTERIOR: the style is Early English, the windows mostly lancets with stone sills and moulded brick hoods. Most contain clear glass leaded lights, others have coloured glass. The nave has buttresses marking the bays, aisle windows and a clerestory; the west end window is a five-light lancet. The rectangular chancel has a three-light lancet in its end gable. The octagonal vestry has a trio of lancet windows to each of its outward-facing sides, and a polygonal tiled roof terminating in a finial. The square tower has three stages: a single lancet; a pair of lancets with a clock above them; and bell louvres. It has four round spirelets at its corners with stone pinnacles and a large eight-sided spire rises above these. A further spirelet with stone pinnacle rises from the north transept, a counterpoint to the tower.
INTERIOR: the sense of space in the nave has been compromised by the insertion of a suspended ceiling, although much of original fabric itself is largely unaltered. The roof survives above the inserted ceiling but it is not possible to discern if the painted lettering on the chancel arch reading 'Thy Faith hath made Thee whole - go in Peace' is intact; it was in 1970 when it was recorded in a book about the church. The stone nave arcade columns have clustered shafts with carved capitals which support a pointed arch of brick. The interior walls are all exposed brick, the floor of the nave quarry tiled in red and black, except where the bench pews rest on a timber platform. The chancel is richly decorated with encaustic tiles and the steps up to the altar are marble. The reredos dates to 1887 and was a gift by the first vicar and his wife in memory of their parents. It was made by Thomas Afleck of Lancaster, sculptor and mason, to designs by a Mr Payley of the same town. The reredos is a splendid panel of pink Buxton marble (alabaster) with five pointed arched bays, with crepuscular sprockets and finials, marked by paired ebony marble columns. Each aedicule contains gilt lettering spelling out the Decalogue and the central panel has a banner reading 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners' in a characterful Victorian script. The pulpit is another fine feature, dating to the mid-C17 with egg-and-dart carving and strapwork; it came from the former parish of Broughwater. The stone font is Victorian and is not in its original location. There is an organ (of 1884 by Foster and Andrews of Hull), brass eagle lectern of 1886 and the majority of the original pews survive, including the choir stalls in the chancel. There is a foyer at the west end, created by the insertion of a glass and timber screen of 1979 (made with wood from the pews removed from this area). In here is a First World War memorial and a set of three brass alms boxes.
STAINED GLASS: a small number of windows, most given in memory of members of the congregation and ranging in date from 1891 to 1924. One, of the Good Shepherd, is in the style of Edward Burne-Jones but is undated. The others are more conventional. The east end window was installed in 1890, as were five small lancets at the west end; above these is the main five-light west window of 1969 by WJ Threasher.
HISTORY: Holy Trinity was built to serve the Gratwicke Estate area of Worthing, to the west of the town centre, which was developed from the 1860s. It cost £6,000 with funds coming from the Bishop of Chichester, the Incorporated Church Building Society and public subscriptions. There was seating for 600 and half the pews were free. The builder was a P Peters of Horsham and the superintendent of works a Sydney RJ Smith ARIBA. The church was consecrated in July 1883 but the tower was not finished until 1888 owing to shortages of funds. A vestry was added in 1894 as a memorial to the first vicar of the church, Revd Joseph Lancaster, who was a victim of a typhoid epidemic in Worthing in 1893. In the 1970s, the roof was concealed internally through the insertion of a suspended ceiling, which the current congregation aspire to remove; a glazed screen was inserted at the west end of the nave to create a foyer and a hall added to the south, to designs by WJ Threasher of Southwick.
Henry Coe was a pupil in the office of George Gilbert Scott at the same time as GE Street, before setting up practice in London with EC Goodwin. Together they designed the Birmingham Blind Institute (1849, now demolished), Holy Trinity Bracknell (1851, unlisted) and Christchurch, Redcar (1854, Grade II). In 1856, in partnership with HH Hofland, Coe's was the winning entry in a competition for the Foreign and India Office building in Whitehall. The commission went to Scott, however, who had been placed third and was requested by the Prime Minster, Lord Palmerston, to abandon his Gothic-style design in favour of the Italianate, an episode that is well-known for epitomising the 'battle of the styles' in Victorian architecture. Coe also designed the Dundee Infirmary in Scotland and he has a number of listed buildings to his name including a country house, now the Whitlinham Hospital, South Norfolk (1865, Grade II) and various houses on The Avenue in Bedford Park, West London (c1877, all Grade II). He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, North London.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Holy Trinity Worthing is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* the confident scale of this church of 1882-88 by Victorian architect Henry Edward Coe, with its landmark tower and spire;
* historic interest in evidencing the expansion of Worthing westwards from the 1860s;
* well-surviving interior complete with original pews, font, stained glass and a particularly fine Victorian reredos and a Jacobean pulpit from an older church.
