Warton - Holy Trinity
Warton had no medieval church, having been formed from two small hamlets close to the Leicestershire border. It has only ever been served by the present rather humble early Victorian building, that looks more like a cemetery chapel than a parish church.
Holy Trinity was built in 1841 to the designs of Thomas Johnson in a form close to the simple 'Commissioners Gothic' of the preceeding decades, with a simple bellcote and plain lancet windows. The west front is a very simple elevation, a stone wall pierced only by two tiny slits of windows and the projecting west porch, further reinforcing the mortuary chapel look.
The interior however feels surprisingly wide for so small a building, formed of one large hall-like space with a projecting alcove-like chancel, one of the tiniest sanctuaries I've seen. There is Victorian / Edwardian stained glass in several windows, the main east window of three-lancets bearing a Crucifixion from 1900 that appears to be by Clayton & Bell; the plain panels at the bottom suggest that either there was once a reredos partially obscuring this area or that one was planned. The remaining windows in the nave are single lancets with figures, one with Abraham on the north side by Pearce & Cutler, with two female saints to the south by the same studio, all 1930s. A further window of St Margaret of Antioch (spearing a diminutive dragon) was added later c1950 and looks like the work of John Hardman Studios of Birmingham.
The interior however feels surprisingly wide for so small a building, formed of one large hall-like space with a projecting alcove-like chancel, one of the tiniest sanctuaries I've seen. There is Victorian / Edwardian stained glass in several windows, the main east window of three-lancets bearing a Crucifixion from 1900 that appears to be by Clayton & Bell; the plain panels at the bottom suggest that either there was once a reredos partially obscuring this area or that one was planned. The remaining windows in the nave are single lancets with figures, one with Abraham on the north side by Pearce & Cutler, with two female saints to the south by the same studio, all 1930s. A further window of St Margaret of Antioch (spearing a diminutive dragon) was added later c1950 and looks like the work of John Hardman Studios of Birmingham.
The church is not normally open, and despite visiting on a rare open day I had to be quick as a wedding was imminent (I was met by a photographer who asked if he'd got the right church for so and so's wedding; he was right to be unsure, didn't seem like it could
accommodate too many guests!). It isn't a church to delay a visitor long anyway, but an enticingly simple house of prayer nonetheless.
Aidan McRae Thomson May 2013
accommodate too many guests!). It isn't a church to delay a visitor long anyway, but an enticingly simple house of prayer nonetheless.
Aidan McRae Thomson May 2013