Holy Trinity Church is in the village of Holdgate,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, England. It is an active Anglican

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in the deanery of Ludlow, the archdeaconry of Ludlow, and the

diocese of Hereford The Diocese of Hereford is a Church of England diocese based in Hereford, covering Herefordshire, southern Shropshire and a few parishes within Worcestershire in England, and a few parishes within Powys and Monmouthshire in Wales. The cathedral i ...

. Its benefice is united with those of St Peter,

Diddlebury Diddlebury is a small village and large civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is situated in the Corvedale on the B4368 road about north east of Craven Arms. The population of the Civil Ward in 2011 was 670. Public buildings St Peter's parish ...

, Broadstone Church, St Michael,

Munslow Munslow is a small village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is situated on the B4368, northeast of the small town of Craven Arms, in the Corvedale, at around above sea level. The village formed part of and gave its name to the hun ...

, and St Catherine, Tugford. The church 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, a ...

as a designated Grade I

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 ...

. It stands in the former southwest bailey of Holdgate Castle.

History

A church with a priest is recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

, but none of the fabric from that church has survived. 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 ...

and possibly part of 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. Ov ...

date from the 12th century, with the rest of the chancel and the lower part of the tower from the following century. The south porch was probably added in the 14th century. The upper part of the tower was added either in the 15th, or in the 17th century. The west end of the nave was partitioned off as a schoolroom after 1793, and the church was restored and re-pewed in 1854–55. In 1894–95 there was a further restoration by J. P. St Aubyn and Henry Wadling, during which a chancel arch was inserted, windows were renewed, the ceilings were taken down, new roofs and a new porch were built, and the partition in the nave was removed.

Architecture

Exterior

Holy Trinity is constructed in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

with tiled roofs. Its plan consists of a nave with a south porch, a chancel, and a west tower. The tower is in two stages. On three sides of the lower stage are lancet windows. The upper stage contains bell openings on each side, and two string courses, each of which incorporates

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 ...

s. On the summit is a

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

with corner pinnacles. The upper stage is

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

in style. In the south wall of the nave is a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

round-arched doorway with capitals decorated with

volute A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals. Four are normally to be found on an Ion ...

s and foliage. The arch is of three orders, the inner order being carved with beakheads, the middle order with a

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

of arches, and the outer order with zigzags. Above this is a

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

carved with zigzags and pellets. The windows are mostly Early English, although some of the lancets in the chancel appear to be later insertions. In the south wall of the chancel is a sheela na gig, dating probably from the 12th century.

Interior

In the north wall of the chancel is an

aumbry An ambry (or ''almery'', ''aumbry''; from the medieval form ''almarium'', cf. Lat. ''armārium'', "a place for keeping tools"; cf. O. Fr. ''aumoire'' and mod. armoire) is a recessed cabinet in the wall of a Christian church for storing sacred vesse ...

, and in the south wall is a

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

. The pews are

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in ch ...

s, one of which has a desk dated 1707 attached to its back. Also in the church is a pair of Jacobean seats with carved canopies. The circular Norman font is elaborately carved with rope moulding, a dragon, interlace, foliage, and medallions. In the church are royal arms of 1757. The stained glass in the east window, dating from about 1904, is by Herbert Bryans. In the south wall of the nave is a tomb recess dating from the 14th century. The monuments include

brasses A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pavem ...

from the 17th and 18th centuries. There is a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of three bells, two dated 1657 and 1666 are by John Martin, and the other dated 1754 is by Abel Rudhall.

External features

In the churchyard are three memorials, each listed at Grade II. To the south of the chancel is an ashlar headstone dated 1716, and to the southeast of the chancel is a similar headstone inscribed with the dates 1748 and 1771. To the south of the nave is a chest tomb dating from the early 19th century.

References