Listed Building: CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY (467998)

WEYMOUTH SY6778NE TRINITY ROAD 873-1/23/384 (South side) 12/12/53 Church of the Holy Trinity GV II* Anglican parish church. 1834, extended and reoriented 1888; the altar to the S. By Philip Wyatt, the sum of »1100 towards the cost given by Rev. George Chamberlaine, the founder; new work of 1886-87 to the designs of GR Crickmay, estimated cost »4000 final cost approx »7000, including high retaining wall to the S (qv Chapelhay Steps). MATERIALS: Portland ashlar street frontage, remainder dressed and squared or rubble Portland stone with cream limestone dressings, slate roofs. PLAN: nave with gallery, E and W transepts, shallow chancel, deep lobby with flanking octagonal spaces, one with staircase, W porch, vestry, undercroft. A central fleche is shown on the Crickmay perspective. In Perpendicular style. EXTERIOR: the gabled street front (N) has a large 7-light deep-set window in a 4-centred arch, to a deep splayed weathered sill above a 4-centred doorway with multiple orders to a pair of plank doors, under a square label course, and on a flight of divided steps with external balustrade; the steps are carried over the low-level pavement on a brick half-barrel vault. To each side of the low-pitched gable with saddle-back coping and embellished frieze is a square turret, with paired slender buttresses; the top section of the buttress is set diagonally, cropped at the parapet; (the Crickmay Contract drawings, dated 29 March 1886, show these as square buttresses carried through as pinnacles). On the right return the turret stops to a lofty square buttress with pinnacle, and with a pinnacled statue niche at low level. A small 2-light window at low level. The W (liturgical S) front has paired gables over large 5-light windows, with 2 windows in the S wall. To the left are two 3-light windows high to the nave, under a casement-mould eaves with ball-flower, and with dividing buttress to pinnacle. In the re-entrant angle is a gabled porch over pointed doorway, with a small 2-light on the return wall; the gable, with saddle-back coping, contains panelled decoration in the upper part. To the right of the transept is the flat-roofed vestry beneath a plain wall with 2-light window, and to the right a flight of steps down to the nave level. The S gable wall is in rubble banded with ashlar, to a saddle-back coping, with lower projecting gabled chancel having a 5-light window; this is set very close to the high retaining wall carrying Trinity Terrace (qv). The E front, in rubble banded with ashlar, has a 4-light and 7-light windows to the transept, the larger in a slightly projecting gable, and a 4-light to the right in the nave. INTERIOR: inside the lobby are broad 4-centred arched openings with panelled glazed doors, and on 3 steps. To the left are the gallery stairs, to the right was originally the baptistry. The nave has plain plastered walls, and a 2-bay arcade each side to the transepts, on lofty piers to high bases and moulded 4-centred arches. A plain chancel bay narrows to the sanctuary under a similar arch. The floor is in square red tile or wood block. The low-pitched panelled ceiling is in 9 bays, with a central ventilator, and with moulded ribs to small panels with florets. A raised bay over the main N window. The gallery has a painted panelled front, and has been underbuilt with a wall in acoustic tiling, but the set-back original supporting wall has a series of 4-centred arches. To each side of the nave is a deep arched recess, with brass memorial tablets. The W transept has a double ceiling on arch-braced principals, carried centrally to a traceried beam with moulded soffit, on bold brackets with carved stone angels. The Contract drawings show a 10 x 6ins rolled steel joist to the valley above the beam. The chancel has linenfold panelling of 1923, and the sanctuary has Gothic open tracery screens above small-scale panelling, with central triptych. FITTINGS: plain pews, alabaster font (1888), octagonal pulpit of 1903, alabaster with figures, brass lectern, wrought-iron chancel rail, triptych reredos in Gothic detail, with 3:5:3 panels and central Crucifixion. The triptych was provided by public subscription in memory of Canon Weldon, in 1918; the riddel posts are of 1950. MEMORIALS: various memorials and inscriptions, including one in the E transept to Francis Briggs Sowter vicar 1884-1890 'during which period this church was enlarged and transformed'. The earliest monument, in white marble, is to John Willimans d.1836, by Hellyer, in the E transept. STAINED GLASS: the great window above the entrance contains heraldic shields, with a central feature containing a Hebrew inscription ('God the Father'); in the E transept most of the glass was lost through bomb damage in World War II; here the altar painting is based on a Van Dyke. HISTORICAL NOTE: the parish was originally in the Bristol Diocese, but returned to Salisbury in 1836; it was formerly part of Wyke Regis; a Chapel of St Nicholas was located above and S of the present building, and in the undercroft is a section of one of the pillars from this building. The first church was oriented normally, but by 1885 was deemed too small, and in enlargement was re-oriented, with the altar to the S. At first a scheme was agreed 'by arrangement between Mr A Clarke, builder, and the Committee', but fortunately an alternative scheme by Crickmay was adopted; the renewed church was opened on 12 April 1987. The 1970 guidebook includes a photograph taken before the 1887 rebuilding. There were galleries at both ends of the original nave. Apart from its intrinsic architectural interest, and unusual scheme of development, the church is important in the townscape of Weymouth, occupying a significant position on the axis of the Town Bridge (qv). (RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 334; The Buildings of England: Newman J & Pevsner N: Dorset: London: 1972-: 451; Contract drawings by GR Crickmay: Dorchester: 1886-). Listing NGR: SY6785778650

Record last edited

May 20 2019 10:13AM