Holy Trinity Church, West Bromwich

Summary

A church of 1841 by Samuel Whitfield Daukes (1811-1880), with nineteenth and twentieth century additions and alterations. The twentieth century extensions are not included in the listing.

Reasons for Designation

Holy Trinity Church, West Bromwich, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the church is a well-considered design in Early English Gothic style by a well-known architect;

* the plan, proportions and surviving gallery reflect the need to house a large urban congregation for services principally focussed on the pulpit but also for occasional celebration of communion;

*     the church has furnishings, stained glass and memorials supplied by local firms that were nationally respected for their ecclesiastical work.

Historic interest:

* it illustrates the need for a new place of worship to meet the spiritual requirements of a community rapidly formed through growing industrialisation and urbanisation in the late C19;

* the plan and proportions of the church demonstrate that it belonged to the evangelical or 'Low Church' tradition of the Church of England’s C19 liturgical divide.

History

West Bromwich's population grew rapidly in the first half of the C19. The 1821 census records the town had 9,505 inhabitants, but reflecting the growing industrialisation and urbanisation in the region, by time of the 1841 census that number had almost tripled to 26,121. The growth of the town meant new places of worship were required, and consequently a local Church of England committee was established to create a new church for the south-eastern part of West Bromwich. This church, to be dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was created as a chapel of ease for Christ Church West Bromwich (demolished 1980). Christ Church itself was originally a chapel of ease for All Saints Church (Grade II listed, National Heritage List for England 1077146). In 1842, a new parish was created for Holy Trinity.

The church was constructed in 1840-1841 and consecrated on 28th June 1841. The occasion of the laying of the foundation stone in April 1840 was reported to have drawn a crowd of 5,000. This level of support allowed the £3,400 cost of the church to be funded largely by public subscription. The land on which the church was built was gifted by George Silvester, and alongside a £500 grant from the Diocesan Society, significant individual contributions were made by local industrialists such as George Salter and William Chance.

The architect for the church was Samuel Whitfield Daukes of Cheltenham (1811-1880). Daukes employed a restrained, Early English style for the church’s decorative scheme. The church was required to accommodate a large congregation, and as built had a capacity of 930. Holy Trinity has a large aisle-less nave with a gallery, allowing the whole congregation good views of the central pulpit. This design was common in the West Midlands for many of the new churches that were built to accommodate the exploding population in the early C19.

Notable alterations to the church are the rebuilding of the chancel following a fire in 1861 and the 1872 addition of porches to the sides of the west tower. A 1941 photograph shows the tower still had pinnacles to its corner tops, though they have since been lost. The large hall extension to the south opened in June 1973, this was further extended with a new kitchen added in 2007. Internally, the original stone pulpit was replaced with an oak one by Bridgman and Sons of Lichfield in 1946. The most recent re-ordering was carried out under architect John Greaves Smith in 1996-1997. This saw the removal of the pews (these dated from 1884, having replaced earlier box pews), and the installation of a raised dais and new furniture.

Details

A church of 1841 by SW Daukes (1811-1880), with C19 and C20 additions and alterations.

MATERIALS: red brick walls with moulded stone details, slate roof.

PLAN: the church’s rectangular nave has its narrower ends to the south-east and north-west (to be referred to as east and west for clarity). To the west side of the nave is a central square tower flanked by square porches. A short chancel adjoins the nave to the east. North of the chancel is a small porch, south of the chancel is the vestry. The 1973 hall and 2007 kitchen are to the south and both are not included in the listing.

EXTERIOR: the roofs of the nave and chancel are pitched with gable ends, while roofs to the north porch and vestry are hipped. The walls are brick in English bond. The nave and chancel have angle buttresses with chamfered corner bricks, and are capped with gablets. There are parapets at either end of the nave roof (the western parapet is interrupted by the tower), and at the east end of the chancel roof. Windows are tall lancets under corbelled hood moulds, doors have lancet heads. There is a brick dentil course to the eaves of the nave and chancel, with a double rowlock-face brick course to the parapet gables. Two drip moulds skirt the building, one below the level of the window cills, the other mid-way between this and ground level. Details such as coping stones, cills to the windows, drip courses, and occasional plinth bricks to buttresses are in a buff moulded stone.

The church’s west end is dominated by the three-stage tower. The lower two stages have angle buttresses, the upper stage has clasped octagonal buttresses that extend above the parapet. The stages are divided from each other by bands of plinth bricks. The ground-floor stage has four steps leading to the central, double timber panelled door, which is in a concentric pointed-arch door mould. To each face the second stage has a blind double lancet below a chevron motif. The top stage houses a clock face to each side with a lancet opening above, and a dentil block moulding to the parapet. The tower is flanked by porches to north and south (additions of 1872); these are lower than the height of the nave, but share its detailing. Each porch has a blocked lancet window to its front, west elevations, and a single lancet to its respective north and south side elevations.

The north side of the nave has six tall lancet windows separated by pier buttresses. The north side of the chancel has three windows, and a small porch in the angle with the nave. The east end of the chancel has a three-lancet window, and a bellcote at the apex of its parapet. This east elevation of the church also shows the eastern side of the north chancel porch and the vestry, both of which have a single window. The south sides of the nave and chancel are as for the north, though the chancel with its attached vestry and the southern end of the nave are obscured by the C20 church hall (not included).

INTERIOR: the doorway in the tower opens to a porch with a geometric-patterned tiled floor and coffered ceiling. Flanking the entrance double door in the west are two internal doors to the buttresses of the tower. To north and south are doorways to the tower’s side porches, each contains a stair to the upper seating gallery (concrete stairs to the south tower with a WC of 1970 below, timber stairs to the north tower, with a late-C20 kitchenette below). The north tower porch also has access into the upper floor of the tower, where there is a small door with a stair up to the upper stage which houses the bell, (cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1841). In the east side of the porch is a gothic timber inner porch with two sets of double doors to the nave. The nave’s floor is fully carpeted except for the grills for the 1990s heating system. The nave’s roof structure is of moulded cast-iron scissor trusses with a quatrefoil between the apices of the lower chords and rafters. The trusses are carried by corniced corbels positioned high up the nave walls. The seating gallery runs down both sides of the nave and across its west end. It is supported by cast iron columns and has a solid, corniced balustrade. The decommissioned organ pipes are housed in an alcove in the west wall of the nave at the back of the gallery. The organ itself was removed prior to the 1990s re-ordering. In the early 1970s the eastern window on the south side of the nave was shortened to allow access through to the new church hall.

A semi-circular raised dais projects from the chancel through a pointed-arch opening into the nave. The chancel arch has a pair of slender, circular plan columns to the intrados, each with an octagonal base, and at the arch’s spring line, a circular corniced capital. Either side of the chancel arch are doorways; the northern leading to the north chancel porch, the southern to the vestry.

STAINED GLASS, MEMORIALS AND FIXTURES:
The chancel’s triple-lancet east window has stained glass depicting the Passion of Christ, by local firm Chance Brothers (1864). Where known, most of the other stained glass is by Martin Dunn of West Bromwich, though the window in the centre of the nave’s south wall is by Samuel Evans of Smethwick (1918). All but two of the nave and chancel windows have memorial stained glass donated in memory of parishioners: the eastern window on the south side of the nave is in clear glass, and the western window in the north wall of the nave (by Hardman of Birmingham, 1956) was given by the parish’s mothers’ union.

Below the east window in the chancel is the stone relief-carved Last Supper reredos (of 1920 by Boulton & Sons), erected to commemorate the ending of the First World War. Either side of the reredos and built into the eastern corners of the chancel are pairs of carved stone canopied arches with acanthus leaf capitals. A stone plaque on the north wall of the nave lists the names of 118 parishioners who fell in the First World War. Also on the north wall of the nave is a wooden tablet recording the names of those who died in the Second World War. The church contains many personal monuments to parishioners, past vicars and benefactors of the church, the most visible of which are the stone tablets on the north and south walls of the chancel. These include one to George Silvester (died 1860) carved with a relief of a woman beneath a willow tree by the renowned Birmingham sculptor Peter Hollins, 1800-1886. The stone font of 1946 stands in front of the Second World War memorial at the west end of the nave.

Sources

Books and journals
Lucock, Colin, A Brief History of Holy Trinity Church 1841-2008, (2009)
Foster, A, Pevsner, N, Wedgwood, A, The Buildings of England: Birmingham and the Black Country, (2022), 603
The Victoria History of the County of Staffordshire: Volume XVII, (), 50-60

Websites
Sandwell Council Local List, accessed 4 March 2026 from https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/downloads/file/1992/sandwell-local-list

Other
1845 tithe map, West Bromwich (IR29 Tithe Commission and successors: Tithe Apportionments, The National Archives).
'Consecration of Holy Trinity Church, West Bromwich' in the Birmingham Journal, 3rd July 1841
Sandwell Historic Environment Record ref MSD5872: Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Street, West Bromwich
Aris's Birmingham Gazette, 27 April 1849, account of the laying of the foundation stone in their 'Birmingham' column

End of official list entry

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