The Church of the Holy Trinity, Privett, is a redundant

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church in the parish of

Froxfield and Privett Froxfield and Privett is a civil parish in East Hampshire, England, about northwest of Petersfield. The settlements in the parish are the villages of Froxfield Green, Privett and High Cross, and several hamlets including Bailey Green, Filmore ...

, Hampshire, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

as a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is under the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

History

In 1863, William Nicholson of the firm of

J&W Nicholson & Co ''J&W Nicholson & Co'' was a London-based wine and spirits company founded by two brothers from the famous Nicholson gin family: John Nicholson (1778-1846) and William Nicholson (1780-1857) based in Clerkenwell. History John and William Nicholson ...

gin Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink that derives its flavour from juniper berries (''Juniperus communis''). Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe, particularly in southern Italy, Flanders and the Ne ...

distiller Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heating ...

s, bought the nearby estate of

Basing Park Basing Park was a country house in Privett, Hampshire, notable for being the family home of the Nicholson family. The 1878 'White's Directory of Hampshire' described it as a "large and commodious structure, in the Grecian style, commanding exten ...

. Many of the buildings in Privett (now a

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

) were built by him for workers on his estate, and the Church of the Holy Trinity was also built at his expense. It was designed by Sir A W Blomfield and built between 1876 and 1878. A Chapel of the Holy Trinity at Privett was first recorded in 1391, but any remaining evidence of it disappeared when the present church was built on the same site. The size of the new church far outstripped the requirements of the small rural parish, and it was eventually declared redundant in 1975. The tower retains its fine ring of eight bells, hung for traditional

Change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memor ...

, and are looked after by a team of volunteers from other nearby churches. The bells were cast in 1877 by the firm Mears & Stainbank, at

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...

Architecture

Sir

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

described the church as "exceptionally good" and like "a substantial town church". The church, in

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

( Early English) style, is built of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

with

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

dressings. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

has north and south chapels or

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

s, while the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

has four bays with aisles and

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

, and a porch to the north. The tower, with

broach spire A broach spire is a type of spire (tall pyramidal structure), which usually sits atop a tower or turret of a church. It starts on a square base and is carried up to a tapering octagonal spire by means of triangular faces. File:Leicester Cathedral ...

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es and three tiers of

lucarne In general architecture a lucarne is a term used to describe a dormer window. The original term french: lucarne refers to a dormer window, usually set into the middle of a roof although it can also apply to a façade lucarne, where the gable of th ...

s, is high and forms a prominent landmark. The nave has four-bay arcades, a lofty tower arch, a square

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

on pillars with stiff-leaf carving, a round stone

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

and an intricate

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

lectern A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. ...

. The chancel is sumptuously appointed with a

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

floor,

sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, the ...

and

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

with arcading.

Gallery

File:South aisle of Holy Trinity, Privett, from the chancel.jpg, South aisle at Holy Trinity, seen from the chancel File:Font at Holy Trinity Church, Privett.jpg, Font at Holy Trinity File:Pulpit at Holy Trinity, Privett.jpg, Pulpit at Holy Trinity

References

External links

The Holy Trinity Church Privett
– southernlife.org.uk, archived in 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Privett, Holy Trinity Church Church of England church buildings in Hampshire Grade II* listed churches in Hampshire Churches completed in 1878 Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Hampshire Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust Arthur Blomfield church buildings 1876 establishments in England

History

Architecture

Gallery

See also

References

External links