Description

SK39NE WENTWORTH CHURCH DRIVE (north side)

4/62 Holy Trinity, Wentworth (Old) Church (formerly listed as 29.3.68 Wentworth Old Church)

GV II*

Church, partly derelict and in the care of the Redundant Churches Fund, chancel and chapel still in occasional ecclesiastical use. Tower C14- C15, rest rebuilt 1684 for William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford although chancel and chapel appear mid C17. Nave dismantled late C19. Chancel and chapel restored 1925 for the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam and undergoing internal renovation 1985. Ashlar sandstone tower, otherwise rubble sandstone; stone slates to-chancel and chapel. West tower; nave of which only 5-bay south wall remains; chancel with separately-roofed north chapel. Tower: chamfered plinth. Small west window offset to left: 3 cusped lights, 4-centred arch, hoodmould. Quatrefoil in chamfered, square opening above and to right. String course beneath blocked 2-light belfry openings with depressed 4-centred arches, hoodmoulds. String course with corner gargoyles. Nave: central projecting porchway has recessed, round-arched doorway with moulded impost band and archivolt with cherub-carved keystone. Flanking Ionic pilasters; pediment formerly with cartouche in tympanum but now housing displaced finial. Nave windows each with round-arched opening in rectangular architrave; architraved panels above formerly with carvings, fragment remaining in easternmost panel. Eaves cornice, partly missing. Chancel: central south door in moulded surround with cornice. Cartouche in architraved panel above. Headstone fixed to left of door: to Hannah Jennet (d.1769) housekeeper to 2nd Marquis of Rockingham. Flanking windows have 2 round-headed lights within architraves, panels over with carved bird and beast. Eaves cornice; gable copings. East windows to chancel and chapel each of 3-lights with cavetto-moulded mullions under panels with cartouches. 2-light and 3-light windows to north wall. Two 3-light windows to west wall: curved-headed lights, outermost lights blocked.

Interior: Double-quadrant moulded tower arch, now infilled. Chancel: 2-bay arcade with octagonal piers, moulded capitals and double-chamfered arches. Pointed west arch to chapel with light double-chamfer. Chancel arch: depressed, double-chamfered. Wall monument on north wall of chancel to Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (d.1641): kneeling figure within garlanded frame, flanking columns with broken segmental pediment with cartouche and putti. Wall monument on north wall of chapel to William, 2nd Earl of Strafford (d.1695) and wife Henrietta (d.1685): two kneelers face each other in draped classical niche; beneath, a panel extolling the virtues of Henrietta and signed '1689 Strafforde'. At time of resurvey many of the important Wentworth monuments and most fitments temporarily removed for conservation. These include: C15 alabaster effigies of a Gasgoigne knight and wife (north chapel); chest tomb with alabaster effigies of Thomas Wentworth (d.1588) and wife Margaret (north chapel). In chancel north wall a wall monument to Sir William Wentworth and wife Anne parents of the 1st Earl of Strafford.

Numerous lesser items remain including brass to Michael D'Arcy (d.1588) by south door. Brass to Thomas Wentworth (d.1548) in north chapel floor. Removed fittings include C17 panelling, some family box pews and balustraded altar rail. Benefactions board remains listing gifts to the curacy and poor of Wentworth by the Wentworth family and others. West end of chapel partitioned-off to form a vestry; within, the steps down to the external Fitzwilliam vault.

Descriptions of monuments in:

J. A. Harrison, A Brief Guide to the Two Churches of the Holy Trinity Wentworth, 1981.

N. Pevsner, B.O.E: West Riding, 1967ed, p538-9.

P. E. Routh, Medieval Effigial Alabaster Tombs in Yorkshire, 1976, pp131-3

Listing NGR: SK3838198283

External Links

• Old Holy Trinity Church, Wentworth at Wikipedia
• Old Holy Trinity Church, Wentworth official website
• Wikidata Q7084230

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.

Recommended Books

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  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)