Holy Trinity Church, Newbold Road, Chesterfield, Derbyshire

908/5/167 NEWBOLD ROAD 26-SEP-77 (Northeast side) Church of the Holy Trinity (Formerly listed as: NEWBOLD ROAD Parish Church of the Holy Trinity)

II Parish church of 1838 by T. Johnson, altered 1888-89 by S. Rollinson. Choir vestry 1938.

MATERIALS: Pecked square blocks of gritstone, freestone dressings, rock-faced choir vestry, slate roof.

PLAN: Nave, short lower chancel, west tower with flanking porches, north-east vestry, south organ chamber, west choir vestry. EXTERIOR: Plain early C19 Gothic style. The 4-stage west tower has angle buttresses with gabled caps to the first 3 stages, shallow gabled buttresses with attached shafts to the upper stage, and arcaded parapet with triangular merlons and large corner turrets. The second stage has a lancet west window, above which is a clock in the west face and small north and south lancets. The bell stage has 2 lancets with louvres. Lean-to porches have west lancet windows, and doorways with hood moulds, head stops, and ribbed doors. The 6-bay nave has buttresses with gable caps, below a plain parapet, and has lancet windows above sill and plinth bands. Small trefoil windows are in the west wall above the porches. The chancel east window is 3 stepped lancets with attached shafts and hood moulds with head stops. The lower south organ chamber has lancet south and east windows, and the vestry has a hipped lean-to roof and square-headed windows. The choir vestry has a re-used 2-light plate-tracery west window.

INTERIOR: The nave is unusually wide because it was designed to accommodate a 3-sided gallery. The west end of the nave has been closed off by a partition, with gallery above. The nave roof has pine tie-beam trusses strengthened by queen posts, arched braces and 3 axial beams. It has a deep panelled coving above the tie beams. The chancel arch has polygonal responds, possibly an insertion of 1889. The arch to the organ recess is similar. The vestry doorway in the east wall of the nave has a continuous moulding. Walls are plastered and nave windows have hood moulds with head stops. In the south porch is an open-well gallery stair of cantilevered stone treads and iron balusters. Original floors are concealed, but there are floorboards beneath pews and stone paving in the sanctuary.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: East window stained glass is a memorial to the engineer George Stephenson (d 1848), probably of the 1850s and erected by his son Robert. His grave marker, a simple memorial slab, is in the floor of the sanctuary. The 1838 font has a narrow octagonal bowl with pointed quatrefoils. The pulpit, also of 1838, has open arcading and steps with later wrought-iron balusters. Surviving pews have shaped and moulded ends. The chancel has a C20 panelled dado and reredos of 3 arches under gables, with rich tracery, cross and symbols of the Evangelists.

HISTORY: The church was built in 1838 by Thomas Johnson (1794-1865), architect of Lichfield. An early engraving of the interior shows box pews and 3-sided gallery. It was altered internally in 1889 by Samuel Rollinson (1827-91), architect of Chesterfield, who added the organ chamber and probably removed the gallery. The choir vestry was added in 1938. In 1994 the interior was re-ordered by removing the pews and closing off the west end of the nave. The church is the burial place of the distinguished railway engineer George Stephenson (1781-1848), whose wife worshiped here. A modern inscription describes him as "Railway Pioneer: First President of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers".

SOURCES: Holy Trinity Chesterfield, church guide, c1995. Pevsner, N., (revised E. Williamson), The Buildings of England: Derbyshire (1978), 144.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of the Holy Trinity, Chesterfield, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * The church retains its original external character, despite the addition of an unsympathetic vestry, and well represents the plain Gothic style favoured in the early C19 for new parish churches built to accommodate expanding urban populations, as here in Chesterfield. * The church is associated with the railway engineer George Stephenson, who is buried here.
Selected Sources
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details

National Grid Reference: SK 38227 71614