SUMMARY OF BUILDING
Church built in 1838-39 to the designs of John Brown of Norwich with a chancel added in 1865 by F. C. Penrose.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The Church of the Holy Trinity, built in 1838-39, has been de-listed for the following principal reasons: *Interior: the conversion of the church has resulted in the complete loss of its original configuration of nave, aisles, chancel and altar, along with its internal fabric, fittings, and furniture, so that it no longer resembles a church.
*Alterations: the architectural integrity of the church has been further compromised by modern extensions to the chancel, involving loss of historic fabric through inappropriate intervention.
HISTORY
By the 1830s the expansion of Bedford towards the north-west was beginning to place pressure on existing church accommodation in the town. A committee for building a new church as a chapel of ease in the parish of St Paul’s was formed in 1837. The Duke of Bedford contributed £50 and Lord Carteret (the patron) promised an endowment of £2000. The site was offered by Francis Green and the architect John Brown of Norwich was commissioned. The foundation stone was laid on 18 June 1839 and the completed church and burial ground were consecrated on 29 June 1841 by the Bishop of Ely. The church had galleries on cast iron columns and pews in the nave, seating 1400, with the stipulation that at least 500 sittings were to be free. It was also intended that only burials should be permitted and no baptisms or marriages should be conducted there, although both later took place. In 1859 the interior of the church was redecorated and improved by James Horsford, and in the following year a clock was placed in the tower. In 1865 F. C. Penrose designed a new chancel with transepts, and modified the galleries and seating to provide additional accommodation. The tower was restored in 1929 when the pinnacles were removed and again in 1958 when the facings and buttresses were repaired in brick. An engraving of the church by F. Thompson from c1862 shows that, before these changes took place, the north elevation consisted of the steeply pitched gable end of the nave flanked by the lower gables of the aisles, with tall pinnacles in between each gable, and crosses on the apexes of the gables. These, together with the tall pinnacles on the corners of the tower and on either side of the south elevation, imparted an elegance to the church which has been modified by their removal. The church was declared redundant in 1974 and was used for a short time by the Polish Roman Catholic Congregation. In 1979 it was acquired by the Harpur Trust for use as an annexe to the Bedford High School for Girls which opened in 1980. The conversion involved the removal of the nave arcades, altar, pews, galleries, and all other interior fittings. The ground floor is now used as a kitchen and dining room, and an inserted first floor contains classrooms. In 2003-4 a sports hall was built to the north of the church. It is attached to the north-east corner of the church in which a door has been inserted at first-floor level to provide access to the new building. A modern single-storey, flat-roofed extension has been added to the north-west corner of the church.
John Brown of Norwich (1805-76) became the Norfolk County Surveyor in 1835 but his commissions were not restricted to the county. He designed numerous churches, for example, St Michael’s in Stamford, Lincolnshire (1835) and the workhouse in Swainthorpe, Norfolk (1836). Francis Cranmer Penrose (1817-1903) was educated at Winchester and Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was an archaeologist and astronomer as well as an architect. He was the Surveyor of St Paul’s Cathedral from 1852 and President of the RIBA 1894-96. Penrose designed ecclesiastical and domestic buildings, and carried out restorations, principally of medieval churches.
Details
MATERIALS: rubble stone with ashlared dressings and grey slate roof covering. PLAN: Rectangular plan with south tower and north chancel with transepts.
EXTERIOR: the church is in the Early English style. The tower has set-back buttresses, repaired in brick, with tiled offsets and gablets. It is divided into four stages, the first containing the double-shafted portal with roll moulded pointed arch and double-leaf plank and batten door with decorative strap hinges. A heavy Tudor-style hood-mould marks the second stage which, on three sides, is lit by a lancet window with roll moulding and slender blocked jambs. Most of the windows are similar and contain diamond leaded lights with a blue stained glass border. Above this is a modillion course, and then the third stage which has a circular clock edged with brick, again repeated on three sides. The fourth stage has triple lancets with louvre slats, and has been repaired in buff brick. The long east and west elevations have set-back buttresses on the south end and are divided into six bays by Romanesque buttresses with tiled offsets. Each bay is lit by paired lancets with deep raking sills and a semicircular stone arch underneath. The nave elevations have a modillion course and a frieze of continuous trefoils. On the west side is a flight of steps leading down to a door providing access to the extensive brick vaulted cellars. The porch, added to the north end of the west elevation in 1865, is in roughly dressed stone and has angle buttresses. The gable end has raised coping and moulded kneelers, paired lancets under a pointed arch, and a doorway on the left return under a moulded pointed arch with chamfered jambs. The chancel, also added in 1865, mostly obscures the original north elevation but the central window lighting the former nave is still visible: it has three lancets within a pointed arch hoodmould, flanked by smaller cusped lancets. The original gable ends of the aisles have been removed and now simply incline down to the corners. The chancel and transepts have angle buttresses, and steeply pitched roofs with raised gable ends, elaborately moulded kneelers, and a modillion course at eaves level. The main, north-facing element has five grouped lancets set in plain surrounds with some surviving panes of leaded stained glass containing various symbols of the trinity, and a raking sill that terminates in a moulded string course. The east and west transepts have a slightly projecting gabled entrance, with a Latin cross at the apex, containing a pointed arch, chamfered surround with dogtooth ornamentation, and a door similar to that in the tower. Above a stone string course is a rose window with geometric tracery, and above this is a small, cusped triangular opening. The west transept has paired lancets in plain stone surrounds on the left return, and a single-storey, flat-roofed modern extension in the north-west corner. The north-east corner of the transept is attached to a sports hall added in the early C21.
INTERIOR: this no longer resembles a church interior, having lost its nave arcades, alter and all other fittings. The ground floor has been converted into a kitchen and dining room, whilst the inserted top floor forms a corridor flanked by classrooms with overboarded ceilings. The double-chamfered chancel arch has been mostly obscured by this remodelling. The only visible remnants of the interior decoration are heavy, moulded ribs running east-west across the roof, terminating in corbels, and large roundels containing a quatrefoil and bosses in various forms. The door of the east transept opens into a porch with a timber screen pierced with stained glass panels. This leads to the open well, stone cantilevered staircase which has slender cast-iron balusters extending in pairs below the treads.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: three stone piers with tiled saddleback capitals survive, as does a section of the original cast-iron railings along the west side which has balusters terminating in fleur-de-lis.