Listed Building: CHURCH OF HOLY TRINITY (1248232)

Parish church of 1842 by Weightman & Hadfield, enlarged 1873-74 by T.E. Streatfeild. MATERIALS: Coursed and tooled local gritstone with freestone dressings and buttresses, graded slate roofs. PLAN: The original church was a cruciform plan with west tower and north porch, to which the south aisle, north organ chamber and south vestry were added. EXTERIOR: Decorated style church, the north side of which looks down to the road below and is effectively the principal elevation. The church is buttressed, including diagonal buttresses, and has a moulded stone cornice and coped gables. The exterior is dominated by the 3-stage tower and tall crocketed spire. The tower has diagonal buttresses, from which pinnacles rise where the crown turns octagonal. The tall first stage has a 3-light west window, above which is a short middle stage with clock faces, and 2-light belfry openings with louvres. On the south side of the tower is a lean-to added in the 1970s. The 3-bay nave has 2-light windows and porch in the first bay. The later south aisle, under a separate roof, has 3-light west window and 2-light south windows. Transepts have 3-light windows. On the south side there is a segmental-pointed doorway, to the left of which a boiler room lean-to was added in the late C20. The chancel has a 5-light east window, and 1-light cusped north and south windows. The north organ chamber is a shallow gabled projection with round window incorporating 4 trefoil lights. The south vestry has a straight-headed 3-light south window and pointed east doorway. INTERIOR: The south aisle and 1Y:z bays at the west end of the nave are separated from the main body of the church by partitions. The south arcade has round piers and chamfered arches. The nave has an arched-brace roof with cusped arcading above the collar beams. The crossing is roofed by similar but crossed diagonal arched braces. There is no west crossing arch, but a chancel arch, which has an inner order on corbelled shafts. Transept arches have responds with filleted shafts. The tower arch also has responds with shafts. The chancel has a closed polygonal roof with one arched-brace truss, transepts have simple coupled roofs and the south aisle a hammerbeam roof. The east window has a shafted rere-arch, and sedilia have quatrefoil decoration in the spandrels. Walls are plastered. Original floors are mainly concealed beneath carpets and raised floor of the 1970s, which incorporates a tiled baptistery in the crossing. There are C19 decorative tiles in the sanctuary floor. PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The font is octagonal in Perpendicular style. Some C19 benches survive in the nave, which have shaped ends with roundels, and arcaded frontal. The polygonal stone pulpit incorporates an open quatrefoil frieze. Against the east wall are metal plaques with Decalogue, Creed and Lord’s Prayer, probably of 1842 but placed there in the 1874 reordering of the chancel that included installation of the reredos, This is stepped, of marble with inlaid roundels. The wooden communion rail on iron standards is probably of the same date. Stained-glass windows include The Good Samaritan in the nave by Ward & Hughes (1889), crucifixion east window and Nativity in the north transept (1923). Other transept and chancel windows have coloured, patterned glass. HISTORY: Parish church of 1842 by the Sheffield architects John Weightman (1801-72) and Matthew Hadfield (1812-85). It catered for the growing local population and the growing popularity of Matlock Bath as a summer resort, although the church is sited beyond the south end of the main settlement. In 1873-74 T.E. Streatfeild (1848-82), architect of London, added a south aisle, extended the chancel and added the vestry and organ chamber. This was done in harmony with the earlier work. The interior was significantly re-ordered in the 1970s. The south aisle and west end of the nave were partitioned off and their furnishings were removed. Floors were raised in the nave in a scheme that included the installation of a baptistery in the floor of the crossing. SOURCES: Pevsner, N., (revised E. Williamson), The Buildings of England: Derbyshire (1978), 273. REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Church of the Holy Trinity, Matlock Bath, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: • For its well-designed C19 Gothic exterior, that has a unified appearance despite being the work of 2 phases, and is a prominent landmark at the south end of Matlock Bath, with a fine tall spire. • Interior detail of interest includes a rich marble C19 reredos. • For its association with the grow1h of Matlock Bath as a summer resort in the C19.