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Monument Types

• CHURCH (Early Medieval to Modern - 1300 AD to 2050 AD)

Summary

Medieval church highly restored in the late C19th. The arcades date from c.1300, transepts early C14th. It has a perpendicular nave roof.

Additional Information

Listed building description:
Large parish church, medieval in plan and in much of interior, externally Victorian following a restoration and rebuilding (chancel, 1862; west tower and thorough restoration, 1870). West tower, nave with two aisles and clerestory, transepts and chancel. Pink random granite rubble with white sandstone dressings, south porch and clerestory faced in sandstone. West tower has two principal stages, buttressed and capped by thin corner pinnacles above a decorative frieze. 2-light openings to bell-chamber with heavy tracery. Large clock on south face below. Large south porch with embattled parapet and heavy gargoyles. Church parapetted throughout and buttressed - the buttresses also have white stone dressings and copings to gabled and trefoiled tops. Various types of window tracery: clerestory is Perpendicular; aisle windows a late Decorated style with reticulated curves. All windows have hood moulds terminating in large and massy foliate corbels. Chancel has a different and distinctive decorative scheme: buttresses have small projecting grotesque carvings, decorative frieze (foliage, beasts, etc.) below parapet and a later Decorated window tracery pattern, with spare tracery lines. Interior has nave arcade of 4 bays, with double chamfered arches on round piers, late C13. Easternmost piers have four shafts and relate to C14 building of transepts (existing transepts are C19). Perpendicular clerestory and nave roof - low-pitched cambered trusses with traceried panels, supported on angel brackets and with gilded bosses. Large chancel has fine carved choir stalls (1918), turned C17 altar rails, and an ornate stone reredos, representing the Last Supper, heavily undercut, also sedilia, 1884. Chancel roof a plain timber, low-pitched structure, with decorated cambered trusses and cornice. East window, a memorial to various C17 local figures, is by Powell and Co., 1890. So is the stained glass window in the south aisle, c.1929. Chancel contains memorial to Theophilus Cave, d.1656, in mannerist style with well-turned epigram. In south transept, a memorial to Martha Utber, 1745, a kneeling female figure at a prie-dieu in a surround with pilasters, broken pediment and arms.

Fragment of a medieval wooden screen and a foliated oak boss (1539.1885), accession book gives Burrough church as the provenance.

Project Gargoyle survey work in 2010 noted one rather splendid tongue-poking grotesque corbel on chancel arch.

<1> Pevsner N, 1984, The Buildings of England Leicestershire and Rutland, p91-92 (Bibliographic reference). SLE4.

"Externally all C19 in harsh Mountsorrel granite except the Perp clerestory. Chancel rebuilt to a good new design in 1863. The tower was fairly faithfully copied in 1869-70 during the thorough restoration by Stevens & Robinson of Derby. Nave, aisles, and transepts. Arcades of c.1300 with circular piers and double-chamfered arches. The quatrefoil E piers (reconstructed 1969) belong to the building (or rebuilding) of the transepts in the early C14. The two E bays of the arcade are wider than the others; one gives accress to the transepts, the other is harder to explain. Perp nave roof with good figures of angels. - ALTAR RAILS. C17. - Ornate REREDOS, SEDILIA and PISCINA by W D Caroe, c.1892. - STAINED GLASS. E window by Powell, c.1890. - MONUMENTS. Martha Utber d.1745 (S transept). In a surround with pilasters and scrolly open pediment a much too small kneeling figure by a prie-dieu. - Theophilus Cave d.1656 (chancel). The inscription reads:
Here in this Grave there lyes a Cave,
We call a Cave a Grave.
If Cave be Grave and Grave be Cave,
Then reader judge I Crave
Whether doth Cave lye in Grave
Or Grave here lye in Cave?
If Grave in Cave here buried lye
Then Grave where is thy victorie?
Goe reader and report here lyes a Cave
Who conquers death and buries his own Grave."

<2> 1928, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, Volume 15, Vol 15 (1928), p15 (The Church of the Holy Trinity) (Journal). SLE5949.

Given to Leicester Abbey with its chapel at Quorn - confirmed 1318 by Henry II.

<3> Higgins, Tim, 2011, An archaeological watching brief at Holy Trinity Church, Church Street, Barrow upon Soar (Unpublished document). SLE4379.

A watching brief was carried out on work to build an extension to the north of the church in 2011. The foundations of the north aisle and north transept were revealed, both of which had been underpinned with modern concrete, probably dating to the C19th refurbishment of the church. No articulated burials were recorded.
Report is in ADS Library: 10.5284/1028010 - http://dx.doi.org/10.5284/1028010

<4> Morris, Mathew, 2011, Holy Trinity Church, Church Street, Barrow upon Soar: Historic building inspection and recording (Unpublished document). SLE3770.

Inspection and recording in 2011 watched the removal of plaster from walls in the church were two new openings were proposed. In both the north aisle and the north transept the walls were faced with modern brick and concrete render, probably dating to the C19th restoration of the church.
Report is in ADS Library: 10.5284/1022228 - http://dx.doi.org/10.5284/1022228

Sources

Associated Finds

• CARVING (Early Medieval - 1067 AD to 1349 AD)

Designations

• Listed Building (II*) 1074589: CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY
• Conservation Area: Barrow upon Soar

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