Description

BARNSTAPLE

SS5632 BARBICAN TERRACE
684-1/5/4 (South side (off))
22/06/81 Church of Holy Trinity and attached
railings and gate
(Formerly Listed as:
BARBICAN TERRACE
Holy Trinity Church)

GV II*

Parish church. Tower 1843-1845 by D Mackintosh and G Abbot,
remainder rebuilt 1867 by William White (Pevsner), although
the nave rainwater heads are dated 1843. Tower rubble with
tooled ashlar dressing; remainder of church snecked stone with
ashlar and Bath stone dressings; slate roofs with lead rolls.
Free Gothic style, mostly influenced by medieval Perpendicular
with French Gothic influences to E end.
PLAN: 4-bay nave and aisles; apsidal chancel with pairs of
projecting bays on N & S sides; SW tower.
EXTERIOR: notably grand, tall, Somerset-influenced tower; nave
with clerestory; chancel roof lower than nave; aisles with
lean-to roofs. Coped parapets to chancel, chancel bays and
nave. Exterior includes good carved figures on nave and tower.
3-sided buttressed apsidal E end with five 2-light Decorated
style traceried windows, the E window larger. N and S sides
have 2 projecting bays with hipped roofs and 2-light traceried
windows. Aisles have buttresses with set-offs. N side has
moulded N doorway with square-headed hoodmould. S side has
similar doorway to W and a doorway at the E, typically William
White, with stone-slated pent roof carried over it from aisle
buttress to W side of S chancel bay. S side has flat-roofed
vestry with parapet in angle between aisle and tower. Short,
2-light traceried aisle windows. Steeply-pointed, 2-light
clerestory windows to nave. W end of nave has 5-light
Perpendicular-style traceried window and a moulded W doorway.
Fine, tall, 4-stage tower with set-back buttresses with
set-offs; string courses and corbelled, embattled, pierced
parapet with corner pinnacles with crockets and lower, central
pinnacles to each face. Tower has carved frieze below belfry
and parapet. Distinctive, very tall pair of 2-light belfry
openings to each face with pierced quatrefoils filling each
light and ogival hoodmoulds with crockets. 3rd stage has
1-light cinquefoil-headed opening with square-headed
hoodmould.
INTERIOR: nave with deep arch-braced roof and quatrefoil piers
and stained glass of 1875 by Powell.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: iron railings and gates at west end of
tower with an unpierced cast-iron frieze of foliage design.
An uncleared graveyard on the S side with a good avenue of
horse chestnuts lining the path through the churchyard.
Graded for the fine tower, curiously evocative of Somerset
tracery and a prominent landmark in the town, and for the
forceful exterior composition by White.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Cherry B: Devon: London:
1989-: 151).

Listing NGR: SS5620632778

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Holy Trinity Church, Barnstaple at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17532942

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

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)