Description

BRISTOL

ST5777 CHURCH ROAD, Westbury On Trym
901-1/26/2047 (South East side)
08/01/59 Church of the Holy Trinity

GV I

Church. A collegiate church from 1194, early C13 nave and
aisles, C15 chancel, chapels and tower.
MATERIALS: rubble with limestone dressings; roof not visible.
PLAN: N and S chapels, chancel, aisled nave, S porch and W
tower. Early English nave and aisles, with Perpendicular aisle
windows, chapels, chancel and tower.
EXTERIOR: the polygonal chancel end has 3-light Perpendicular
windows, separated by narrow buttresses with slender
diagonally-set buttresses rising from the lower water table to
crocketed pinnacles above the crenellated gable parapet, and
expressive human gargoyles heads to the drip; below is a
blocked 4-centred crypt window; a low C19 vestry to the N has
a 3-light window with flat head and a parapet, and fine E
windows to the chapels, 4-centred arches with 6 lights to the
S and 4 to the N, in shallow crenellated gables; below the S
window the stonework is striped limestone and sandstone
rubble.
N elevation has 2-bay chapel and 4-bay nave, separated by a
square, crenellated stair turret; 3-light Perpendicular
windows divided by buttresses as the chancel, but without
pinnacles to the nave; the C19 W bay extends out level with
the tower; Perpendicular 5-light square-headed window in the
nave gable, and paired trefoil-headed clerestory windows, the
E one larger and, like the nave gable window, to light the
rood loft.
3-bay S chapel and a chamfered stair turret with 2-light
square-headed window and a pair of small quatrefoil panels set
below it; 4-bay nave, with a shallow, quatrefoil-headed window
to the W and the central of the remaining 3 set lower down. A
large, square, 2-storey porch with small diagonal buttresses
to the ground floor; the first floor, with a small
trefoil-headed window, slightly overhangs a drip mould; a wide
2-centred arched doorway with casement mould and 2-leaf oak
gate with Perpendicular open panels; inside, the C13 doorway
has a continuous inner arch and an outer one with Purbeck
marble shafts and stiff leaf captials.
Three C13 stepped lancets in the W window to the S aisle, with
a square turret in the angle with the porch; a massive 4-stage
tower with diagonal buttresses and a SW octagonal stair
turret, with a small door to the base; 2-centred W doorway has
a tracery-panelled door and strap hinges, 4-centred
Perpendicular second-stage window, under a C19 niche with side
pinnacles and a crocketed ogee hood, containing a seated
figure of Bishop Carpenter; 2-light louvred windows with an
elongated quatrefoil to the third stage, and clocks to the
third-stage string; gargoyles to the drip, a crenellated
parapet with crocketed pinnacles and a spirelet to the stair
turret with open cross windows and a fine C19 openwork top.
INTERIOR: C19 reredos, a central wide crocketed ogee arch with
a tableau of the Last Supper, flanked by ogee-arched panels
with crocketed pinnacles between; 2 pointed arches to the N
chapel on piers with 4 attached shafts with small moulded
capitals, and 3 taller arches to the S chapel, which has a
door and rood loft openings beside the aisle arch; shallow
roof with mouchettes above tie beams, on head corbels.
3-bay nave, the N arcade with round piers, moulded capitals
and chamfered arches and a doorway and steps up to the pulpit
at the E end, and a wider-spaced S arcade with thicker piers
and small foliage decorations to the capitals; the walls W of
the arcade are blank, leading to a tall, pointed W arch on
piers and steps down to the W door; clerestory windows with
splayed reveals and segmental hoodmoulds, and corbel heads to
wall posts and tie-beam roof.
N aisle arch on octagonal capitals and foliate corbels, and
beneath it a door to the the stair turret with openings above
to the rood loft. Wide S aisle has a shallow piscina and 3
sedilia, with deeply moulded arches, capitals and attached
shafts.
FITTINGS: C15 timber altar rail with open, cusped ogee arches,
bishop's chair with a ribbed back, bound chest with a lock and
2 padlocks, plain chest incribed as a gift from Jeremy Innys,
1759, brass lectern with a barleysugar stand and 4 supports,
large C19 pulpit with marble shafts, C19 font, octagonal on
marble shafts, and poppy-head pews.
MEMORIALS: wall memorial in the S chapel c1610, a painted
aedicule containing a kneeling man with a shield above; marble
wall tablet to Martha Jacobs d.1616, an aedicule with panelled
pilasters, a triglyph frieze and urn on top; wall memorial to
William Jeffries d.1752, a pedimented panel beneath an
obelisk, with rocaille decoration; marble wall memorial to
James Morgan d.1780 with fluted pilasters and a shield on top.
HISTORICAL NOTE: a Benedictine monastery existed in Westbury,
perhaps as early as AD 720, which became the earliest reformed
house in England in 962. The S chapel is known as Canynge's
after the great Bristol merchant William Canynge who was Dean
of Westbury 1469-74. Although the interior was restored in C19
the exterior is good, and the church forms an important group
with Westbury College (qv), its benefactor being associated
with the building of the chancel and N chapel.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and
Bristol: London: 1958-: 473; Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B:
Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 20).

Listing NGR: ST5733577403

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Holy Trinity Church, Westbury on Trym at Wikipedia
• Holy Trinity Church, Westbury on Trym official website
• Wikidata Q5886634

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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