Church of St James with Holy Trinity (C of E), Scarborough, North Yorkshire

Description

SCARBOROUGH

782/0/10030 SEAMER ROAD
20-APR-07 CHURCH OF ST JAMES WITH HOLY TRINITY (C of E)

II
Parish Church built as a Mission Chapel in 1885, extended in 1894. Original design and extensions by Paley and Austin of Lancaster, stained glass by Shrigley and Hunt. Founder F Hartop Holt. Brick with stone dressings, mainly tile roofs with lead roofing to side aisles and porch. Gothic revival, principally employing Decorated period style.

PLAN
Nave with side aisles, with chancel to the east, porch and vestry to the west. Bell tower rises above the east end of the south aisle with a former boiler room, now partly occupied by the organ, beyond. Undercroft, including a former Sunday Schoolroom, lies below the east end of the church accessed at ground level from the south side.

EXTERIOR

Chancel
The east end has three 2 light segmental arched undercroft windows with the main east window above all within a set back arched panel. The east window has a 2 centre arch and has 4 lights in 2 stages, with upper rectilinear tracery and rounded heads to the lights. Glazing bars externally are rubbed brick. The gable is raised and stone coped with a Latin cross finial. The head of the gable is in stone ashlar and has a central ventilation slit with louvers. The south wall of the chancel has a rubbed brick 3 light window with curvilinear tracery above the side lights only, all below a 2 centred arch, again set in a recessed arched panel. The north wall is blank.

North Aisle
The east end is angled to meet the chancel and has a 2 light window with cusped tracery. The north wall has 3 similar windows. The roof is low pitched lean-to and leaded.

Nave
The roof is tiled and continuous with that of the chancel. It has a raised coped gable without finial. The west window has 4 lights arranged in pairs with rectilinear rounded trefoil headed tracery beneath a low segmental arch. The window externally is of rubbed brick.

Porch and Vestry
This is flat roofed, single storey and spans the west end of the nave and north aisle. It has a brick coped parapet, decorative rainwater hoppers, square headed C15 style windows in stone and a central, stone arched entrance with double door.

South Aisle and Organ Chamber
This is similar to the north aisle except it has a 2 light west window and two 4 light south windows all with stone quatrefoil tracery. At the east end of the south aisle there is the bell tower that is in the form of a stack of 3 empty bell cotes topped with a short, slated spire extending from a slated gable roof. Atop the spire is a fish shaped weathervane. Immediately east of the bell tower is the organ chamber, probably originally intended as a bell ringing chamber and vestry with boiler room below. This has a roof continuous with that of the nave and has a 3 light mullioned window formed with rubbed bricks. The original boiler chimney has been removed.

INTERIOR

Chancel
East window, with tracery internally being stone, has stained glass in memory of the church's founder and was dedicated in 1910 and depicts the Last Supper in the upper lights and symbols of the Passion in the lower lights. The south window dates to after 1909 and depicts our Lord with St John to the left and St Paul to the right. The carved oak reredos and altar date to 1938, and there is simpler oak panelling that continues from either side of the reredos around the back of the oak choir stalls (of 1911) to the rood screen. The rood screen and integral pulpit (installed 1921) is also in oak and is inscribed as a First World War Memorial, also listing the civilians killed during the naval bombardment of Scarborough on 16th December 1914. Roof, continuous with that of the nave, has exposed double arch-braced trusses.

Nave
The arcades to either side open to the side aisles have 2 centred pointed arches springing from columns without capitals, the columns being of chamfered diamond cross section with their long axis at right angles to the nave. At the west end on the north side there is a half arch, on the south side there is a buttressed wall including an arched door, presumably originally an external door before the addition of the south aisle. At the east end there is an artificial stone font installed 1947 that forms a Second World War memorial. The west window is plain glass.

North Aisle
The east window, installed 1894 depicts the call of St James and St John. The 3 other windows depict (from the east) St Peter and St Paul (circa 1901); King David and St John the Baptist (1900); and Isaiah and Jeremiah (1906)

South Aisle
The south aisle is known as Trinity Chapel following the merger of the parish with that of Holy Trinity in 1993. It has one stained glass window (installed 1900), known as the martyrs window depicting St Stephen, St Alban, St George and St Lawrence.

HISTORY

The church was opened as St James' Mission Chapel in 1885, founded by Mr F Hartop Holt, honorary curate at All Saint's Church, Scarborough. Much of the financial support for the church came from the founder's aunt, the widow of the engineer James Nasmyth, inventor of the steam hammer. The mission chapel thrived and was upgraded to a parish church in 1893 on condition that the seating capacity of 150 was doubled. This resulted in the addition of side aisles and the west porch in 1894.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE
St James with Holy Trinity Church is a good, inventive design by the notable architects Paley and Austin which makes good use of a potentially difficult sloping site to form a significant landmark on a major route into Scarborough. Although extended, the extensions were also designed by the same practice. The church retains good quality internal fittings, including a good set of stained glass windows designed in consultation with the architects and manufactured and installed by the firm Shrigley and Hunt. The rood screen is particularly notable and has additional historic interest as a First World War memorial. This also includes the names of civilians killed in Scarborough on the morning of 16th December 1916. This was part of the German Navy's only raid against the mainland, when three cruisers bombarded east coast towns between Scarborough and Hartlepool.

External Links

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