The Holy Trinity

C13 fabric plus a C15 (or later) belfry.

Clay tile roofs.

At the west end of the nave is a Norman doorway, reset from the old building: in the head there is a billet-moulded hood, an order of zig-zag, and the jambs have one order of shafts with scalloped capitals.

The south door of the old nave is also Norman and is similar to the previously mentioned doorway (but with no billet-moulded hood).

On the south side there is a C13 lancet

two C14-style two-light windows under segmental heads.

INTERIOR: The old church has at the west end large timbers to support the bell-turret above and consist of chamfered uprights with arch-braces: a date of 1666 is carved on one of the pillars although the origins are probably C15.

The chancel and nave are divided by a C15 chancel arch with a chamfered head and demi-octagonal responds.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The old chancel has two recesses of interest, that in the south wall early C14, ogee-headed on short shafts, that in the north wall a combined funeral monument and Easter sepulchre.

On the south side is a C14 tomb recess.

There is a C13 piscina with attached shafts while in the old nave is a C12 double piscina in the form of scalloped capitals.

octagonal font

the polygonal, traceried pulpit

The old church has a good assemblage of stained glass from the 1850s while the new part has windows by Comper, 1918-21, in the nave west and north-west windows, and an east window by G E R Smith of 1956.

There is a good monument over the rood loft stairs to Elizabeth Drew with coloured marbles and an urn in front of an obelisk.

The bell-turret houses an early C14 bell.

There is clear physical evidence of a stone church here in the C12.

From that year until 1908 he was in partnership with William Bucknall With the exception of the Welsh War Memorial in Cardiff , all Comper's work was ecclesiastical.

SOURCES: Bettley, J and Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Essex, 708-9 Anon, A Short Guide to the Ancient Parish of Southchurch - (leaflet guide, nd) REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Church of Holy Trinity, Southchurch Boulevard, Southchurch, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * The church is of special interest with the old building having work dating back to Norman times and the subsequent medieval centuries * The old church has a number of fixtures and fittings of note, including the Easter sepulchre, Norman door, piscine and Drew monument * It was much enlarged in the early C20 by two leading figures of the last phase of the Gothic Revival, J Ninian Comper and F C Eden