Monument Type(s):

• PARISH CHURCH (12th century to Late 19th century - 1100 AD to 1895 AD)
• WAR MEMORIAL (20th century (inter-war) - 1919 AD to 1939 AD)

Summary

A 12th/13th century parish church, which is protected by Grade I Listing.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA4576 - 1994 site visit as part of Listed Buildings Resurvey

Description

From the 1995 scheduling for Holdgate Castle (the church and churchyard are excluded from the scheduling): ->

-> A new church, presumably replacing an earlier church, is recorded as being consecrated by Bishop Geoffrey de Clive sometime between 1115 and 1119. This 12th century church is described as being built within the perimeter of the pre-existing castle and some 12th century work survives in the fabric of the present Holy Trinity Church <4>

Church. C12 nave, C13 chancel and lower stage of tower, C15 upper stage of tower, restored 1894-5.
MATERIALS: stone rubble with ashlar dressings. Plain-tile roof with ornamental ridge tiles and ashlar coped gables.
PLAN: chancel, nave with south porch, and west tower.
EXTERIOR: chancel with twin lancets in east wall. North wall with restored pointed window with twin cusped lancet and trefoil tracery, and lancet to right. South wall with flat-headed window of triple cusped lancet tracery, lancet to left. Pointed arched doorway to left. Sheila-na-gig set below eaves. Nave: north wall with 3 buttresses with ovolo-chamfered twin cusped lancet windows between. South wall with 3 buttresses with window to right and far left of restored ovolo-chamfered twin cusped lights with quatrefoil over. Round-arched Norman south doorway to left with 3 orders of shafts with carved capitals of volutes and foliage, hollow chamfered abaci, carved decorative beakhead inner arch, looped middle ring and zigzag outer ring and pellet and zigzag decorated hoodmould over. Late C19 rebuilt south porch.
Tower: 2-stage tower with battered plinth and roll mould, 2 string courses at the upper stage, each incorporating gargoyles, stepped buttresses of former west wall of nave incorporated into tower walls, flat headed lancets on 3 faces at the bottom stage, bell-openings on each face at upper stage, with pointed arched openings, round-headed arched opening to the north and twin square-headed to the east. Battlemented parapet with carved corner pinnacles.
INTERIOR: plastered nave and exposed stone chancel. C19 scissor-truss chancel roof. Aumbry in north wall and piscina in south wall set under reused pointed arched head. Restored pointed chancel arch. Restored 3-bay single-purlin nave roof with 3 arch-braced collar and tie beam trusses and 3 arch-braced collar intermediate trusses. C14 tomb recess with shallow pointed arch on the south wall. West wall has round-headed lancet at high level pre-dating the tower, C15 tower doorway with stepped segmental arch. Simple box pews, mostly of C17 doors fixed to C16 bench ends with ovolo-moulded caps, one has a small flat reading desk attached dated 1707. Pair of Jacobean seats with carved canopies against south wall and armorial bearings of 8 quarters over. Richly ornamented Norman chalice font said to be of the C12 Herefordshire school of carving. Simple C17 to C18 communion rails with turned balusters. <5>

Photographs taken on 9th July 2015, including of internal war memorial. <7>

Photographed during aerial survey in 2009. <8>

It is more likely than not that a structural chancel was added at Holdgate. The present C12 nave is 54 x 17 ft, dimensions that could have been those of a single cell containing nave and chancel. The chancel itself has no feature earlier than the C13, its walls are 4 to 5in thinner than those of the nave, and there is no evidence of an original chancel arch. The evidence does not wholly preclude a rebuild in the C13 but gives less support to that than to the likelihood that it was added. <9>

Photographed during aerial survey in 2019. <10>

Shropshire Archives hold a watercolour of Church of Holy Trinity, Holdgate (Reference
6001/372/1/100), by Reverend Edward Williams, dated to 1789. A small-scale thumbnail can be found via their online catalogue: https://www.shropshirearchives.org.uk/collections/getrecord/CCA_X6001_19_372A_100 <11>

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.