Trinity Green is a public park located on the edge of Stockton Town Centre in Stockton-on-Tees,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The park is dominated by the preserved ruins and

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 Ir ...

of Holy Trinity Church which was gutted by fire in Autumn 1991. Trinity Green was given to the town of Stockton by Bishop William van Mildert at the start of the 19th century, and now serves a space open to the public, hosting occasional cultural and community events.

History

In 1833 the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert (1765 - 1836) gifted five acres and the land of an existing burial site called the "The Monument" (originally a mass grave from a prior cholera outbreak) to the town of Stockton. Upon this land, the process of building of and designing Holy Trinity Church began, using funds originally allocated for church building in the Commissioners' church Act of 1818. It was designed by

John and Benjamin Green John and Benjamin Green were a father and son who worked in partnership as architects in North East England during the early nineteenth century. John, the father was a civil engineer as well as an architect. Although they did carry out some commi ...

, and construction began in 1834. It was consecrated as an Anglican church on December 22, 1835, making it the first parish church of Stockton. The church spire originally measured 200 feet high making it the tallest building in the area at the time, however, the top was lost during a gale in 1882. Holy Trinity continued to serve the Anglican community of Stockton faithfully for many years, being listed as a Grade II* protected building on the January 19, 1951. In September 1955 it was reported that the churchyard was to be converted into an open space. From this point onwards, the area was designated a public park for local citizens, but the church itself continued to be in service. The church continued to operate until 1982 when the decline in members and finances forced it to close. In 1985 the building was taken over by the

Greek Orthodox church The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...

, but the church was plagued by vandalism until it was destroyed by fire in Autumn of 1991 and added to the '

Heritage At Risk register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

' by

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. The cause of the fire was never established. The ruin continued to be vandalised until it was protected by a steel fence. In 2007, funding was secured to improve the site using funding from the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and s ...

, as well as an additional £350,000 was secured through discussion between the local government and

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. By 2009, the site had undergone renovation with works including boundary improvements, entrance features, seating, a heritage trail and interpretation panels and preparation works for illumination of the ruin. With the safety of the site being secured, the status of the protected building was removed from the '

' in June of that year. The park is now the site of many of Stockton's cultural events such as Stockton International Riverside Festival and its carnival, as well hosts annual

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in t ...

services.

Architecture

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in 1951]'' The church once featured a highly ornamental exterior, however the decorated Gothic style still remains today. The remaining building is entirely adorned with Ashlar stone. On each wall there are gabled

buttresses 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 (si ...

with scrolled label stops, with set back

at each corner. At each of these corners there are Pinnacle towers, with gargoyles below. Each wall is also arcaded with

parapets 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'). Wher ...

built at the top, with each having a corbel arch with minimal gabled stone. There is a wide 4-bay

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 ...

with lower

transepts 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 ...

with gabled extensions pointing towards the east. There are also a double bayed

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 ...

. On the east of the

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 wi ...

, there is a small gabled

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

. The tower of the church is at west end, and displays a large hexagonal base for the now missing steeple, as well as the main entrance below. The tower has set back

and

pinnacles A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was main ...

, a pointed doorway with label stops. There were also once coupled and decorated windows adjourning the chancel. These windows were in the Lancet and

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

styles, and were placed into the nave and transepts with 'poppyhead' label moulds. In the tower, there were once windows in blind tracery with arches above.

References

{{Coord, 54.5602, N, 1.3153, W, display=title Parks and open spaces in County Durham Stockton-on-Tees