Church

St Thomas, Trowbridge

St Thomas, Trowbridge

St Thomas’s is a Grade II parish church on York Buildings (St Thomas’s Road), Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in the Diocese of Salisbury, a Victorian church built for the town’s mill workers.

Location
Trowbridge, Wiltshire
Country
England
County
Wiltshire
City / town
Trowbridge
Address
York Buildings, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 8PT
Postcode
BA14 8PT
Built
1868–70
Architect
Thomas Smith
Denomination
Church of England
Dedication
Thomas
Diocese
Salisbury
Parish
Trowbridge St Thomas
Grade
II
Style
Early Pointed
Materials
Local squared and coursed rubble with Bath stone dressings; concrete tile roof
Grid reference
ST 858 583
Opening hours
The key for the church is held in the church office located in the vicarage, next to the church. The church office is open Tuesdays to Fridays 9.30am to 1pm.

Overview

Historic England records a church of 1868–70 by Thomas Smith for the Clark family of Bellefield. The fabric is local squared and coursed rubble with Bath stone dressings; a concrete tile roof replaces the original slates. The plan is a near-symmetrical cruciform with a north-east baptistry and south-east vestry; a spirelet was lost in 1970. The style is Early Pointed. Four buttressed gables each have graduated triple lancets. Two gabled porches sit in lean-to projections, with moulded arches on engaged shafts with foliate capitals. Inside, an open crossing has shallow one-bay transepts, a one-bay chancel and a two-bay nave, divided by pointed ashlar arches with dogtooth moulding. Compound columns of red and grey sandstone have foliate capitals.

Fittings include a full set of contemporary furnishings: pews with brass umbrella rails, a stone pulpit with carved scenes on a marble shaft, a circular stone font in the baptistry, and an organ by Griffin and Stroud of Bath. Local accounts name William Smith, a Trowbridge architect also responsible for the Tabernacle in Church Street, and state that Major Thomas Clark laid the foundation stone in memory of his father; all 400 seats were free. The separately listed gateway of about 1868 is also attributed to William Smith.

Further Information