23533

 

II  

Designated  

18/07/2000  

31/01/2003  

Church of the Holy Trinity  

 

Torfaen  

Pontnewydd  

Cwmbran  

Pontnewydd  

328727  

196269  

S  

In a large churchyard, with Mount Pleasant Road to the N, Church Road to the W, and Trinity Road to the E.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Anglican parish church of 1859-60 by Prichard & Seddon, built as part of a group with schools and vicarage (schools demolished, vicarage altered). High Victorian polychrome Gothic with S porch tower capped by two-stage slate roof. The nave roof is said to have been replaced in 1870 by E.A. Lansdowne, but is not obviously an alteration. Parish formed in 1885. N aisle was added in similar style in 1889 by E. M. Bruce Vaughan for £680. Previously there were long windows on the N wall. In 1981 the W gable was rebuilt removing the traceried head of the W window. Church is actually aligned N to S, but description uses conventional alignment with chancel to E.  

Anglican parish church, pale brown squared sandstone rubble banded in purple sandstone rubble with Bath stone ashlar bands and. Bath stone dressings. Slate roofs and coped gables. Decorated Gothic style, nave, S porch-tower, chancel, added N aisle and N lean-to vestry with later gabled addition. Walls have high battered base and two broad flush bicolour bands, each of two bands of purple stone between 3 bands of thin ashlar, the bands subtly varied in width. Bands continue right around but upper band is lower on chancel. Eaves band has nogged brick between 2 courses of ashlar. Buttresses to nave E end. Traceried windows set flush with ogee and hollow mouldings, bicolour voussoirs and thin course of greenish slate outlining voussoirs. Chancel has tall E 3-light with spurred quatrefoil head and S wall 2-light with circle in head and cusped single lancet windows. Nave has two 2-light S side windows (set higher than chancel windows, above lower bicolour band) with pointed quatrefoils, porch tower and single lancet. Big W 4-light window of 2-pairs of lancets, the flat head of 1981 replacing a pointed head of 3 foiled circles and bicolour voussoirs. Porch tower has 2 stages, E side polygonal stair turret with slated half-octagonal roof against second stage and unusual 2-stage slate roof with band of louvred timber between stages. The top stage is steep, bellcast and with short ridge running W-E, with iron cross cresting. Pointed ogee-moulded S entry with deep hoodmould, carved flower stops and cusped arch, the cusping echoed in unusual boarding of double doors, which have wrought iron hinges and small pierced glazed trefoils in heads. Pointed chamfered inner S door and narrow pointed door to stair. C20 flooring and dado. Above doorway first stage has bicolour bands as on nave, and ashlar cinquefoil under moulded cornice between the stages. Second stage has tall 2-light pointed bell-lights to S and W with ringed column shaft, quatrefoil in head and bicolour voussoirs. Ashlar quoins, chamfered to upper stage, cornice between stages with billet moulding, and moulded brackets under eaves. Stair turret has one NE small light above upper bicolour band, moulded cornice carried around (at nave eaves level) and short windowless stage above under slate 5-sided steep roof. Lean-to N aisle of 5 bays with alternate 2-light and 3-light windows, raised piers between, polychrome banding and pointed 2-light w window. Catslide roof. Chancel N has lean-to vestry and gabled organ-chamber, the vestry with big gabled addition running N. W shouldered-headed doorway and N end 3 windows, the centre one taller. Rock-faced red stone broad band at sill level and another in gable. Single-light to lean-to E end.  

Plastered painted walls with ashlar pointed N arcade with keeled quatrefoil piers and moulded caps and bases, moulded arches with hoodmoulds and carved head stops (portraits of bishop, vicar and 2 churchwardens). Chancel arch with continuous ogee moulding and subtle variation in acuteness of arch and outermost moulding. Scissor-truss nave roof with notched edges to trusses and wall-posts on corbels. Aisle roofs have notching as on nave roof, with wall-posts on S side on corbels, carrying big angle braces. Windows have flat heads and ashlar ringed shafts. Aisle E pointed doorway with double panelled doors. Chancel has panelled roof in 7 cants, with timber stop-chamfered ribs and plaster panels. N side has pointed arch infilled by organ and pointed diagonally-boarded door to vestry. Organ-chamber is lean-to, vestry is lean-to with added room to N. Fittings: Former chancel screen, now on W wall, c1860, timber Gothic, 4-1-4 bays with attractive brass inserts in open upper panels of outer bays, open spandrels of centre trefoil-headed arch and open panels along top under brattished cornice. Pitch pine pews, nave tiled centre aisle. Mid C20 Gothic altar, reredos, later C20 stalls (c1968) and font. C20 eagle lectern. Organ of 1886 by P. Conacher in minimal Gothic timber case with painted pipes. Oak pulpit of 1891, with base removed, panelled Gothic. Chancel steps and tile floors covered by C20 carpeting. Stained glass: E window of 1956 by G. Maile & Co, Crucifixion with SS Mary and John. N aisle first 2-light SS Elizabeth & Margaret, by G. Maile Studios 1970; second, 3-light, c 1889 Suffer the children, probably by Heaton Butler & Bayne; third 2-light 1916 by Powell of Whitefriars, SS George and Nicholas, slightly Arts and Crafts influenced figures on clear grounds, design by J. Hogan; fourth 3-light c 1958 St David with daffodil and rose motifs in side lights; fifth, 2-light, Martha and Mary, 1936, conventional. Chancel S single window of c1878 signed J. Jennings, 96 Clapham Road, St Cecilia.  

Included as a High Victorian church of definite architectural quality, by the leading church architects of the period in Wales.