Holy Trinity, Long Sutton, Somerset
Description
The church of the Holy Trinity is a building of stone, in the Early Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel with chapels, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, north and south porches, and a lofty embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing a clock and 5 bells: the chancel has a modern arched roof panelled: the nave roof is a fine example of timber work of the Late Perpendicular period, and is divided into four bays by framed principals, richly moulded, with embattled tie-beams, supported on corbels and ornamented with quatrefoils and carved bosses, the space between the tie-beams and the roof being filled in with open tracery: the aisle roofs are of simpler character, but have moulded principals carried on corbels and brackets: the chancel has three sedilia and a piscina: the rood screen, an admirable example of Late Perpendicular woodwork, extends completely across the church, partially inclosing the chapels: the lower portion is panelled, and the upper part carved and groined, the ribs springing from slender shafts rising from the base: the frieze is divided by mouldings into three bands, elaborately carved with running foliage: the entrances to the chancel and chapels are through tall open doorways, the intervening spaces being arched and filled in with open tracery; the rood loft stairs remain in a turret adjoining the south chapel: the octagonal pulpit is an extremely fine and highly wrought work of the same period: the exterior is divided by crocketed pinnacles into a series of narrow divisions, each forming a tall canopied niche: the projecting desk frieze is enriched with carved foliage and the upper part of the base has alternating bands of moulding and carved work, surmounted by a trefoil cresting: in 1878-9 the nave roof was thoroughly restored at a cost of about £230, the roofs of the aisles and chapels re-constructed and an organ gallery formed above the rood screen, under the direction of John S. Quilter esq. F.R.I.B.A. of London, and a new organ provided at a cost of £265: the tower, which is groined in its lower stage, has a western entrance and a stair turret on the south side: there are sittings for 300 persons.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1558.