History & Grounds

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History of the grounds

The private grounds are now a most attractive and quiet open space, just off the busy High Street of the town.

The site is remarkable for the avenues of ancient lime trees that are clearly shown on a map of the town made by W. Upjohn in 1799. The trees are regularly pollarded on a three-year cycle and this repeated pruning is said to have helped them survive for so long. However, several of them have become a potential danger and have been felled and replaced with new trees,  including one planted by the then, Countess of Wessex in 2015.In and around the trees, the site was substantially planted with many thousands of snowdrops in 2013 to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II . This was a major community event and marked the beginning of the town's annual snowdrop festival each February.  Volunteers continue to separate and replant the bulbs to maintain an outstanding early spring display that attracts many visitors.
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As a closed churchyard, the north west part of the grounds, next to the road, is the responsibility of the Town Council which partners with the Trinity Trust to provide a consistent level of care.

1302

1.

The Church of the Holy Trinity was first recorded in 1302. The parish rights in the nave of the Shaftesbury Abbey Church were transferred to Holy Trinity in 1364. One of the earliest references to Holy Trinity is in the will of Alice atte Halle dated 3 October 1348. Her will includes instructions that her tenement in Holy Trinity Parish between the tenements of Peter Selewode and John Bigget, be sold and that 5 shillings from the sale be given to Richard Goche and the rest be distributed in Masses and bread for the poor of Shaftesbury 'for my soul' .

2.

In 1542 (not long after the Reformation) the parish of Holy Trinity Shaftesbury was transferred from the Salisbury diocese to the Bristol diocese. The Bristol jurisdiction over the parish ended in 1835 (shortly before construction on the current building began.)
Early Rectors:
1414 Anselm Counewyck
1432 Thomas Wodeford
Unknown ThomasPectrum
1438 Reginald Kyngbrugg
Unknown William Hoper
1467 Thomas Petkyn
1470 Thomas Gardener
1471 William Vesyng or Veysan
1477 William Ayscoughunknown William Jonis
1486 John Skypton
1503 Thomas Watkinson
1505 Richard Caswell
1508 Thomas Watkinson
1515 Thomas Burdeux
1542 Roger Baker
1556 Thomas Fesard
Source: John Hutchins, 'History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset' 3rd edition volume iii (page 52)

1542

1615

3.

Little information about the original Holy Trinity Church is available.John Hutchins in his "History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset" said of the original church that it"is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is situated in the north part of the town, on the south side of Bimport Street and Park Hill, and consists of a chancel, and to aisles equal with the chancel and body, and leaded, supported by four arches on each side; and in the body, above the aisles, are three windows on each side: now fastened with shutters, as is also the East window, which is modern. The tower is embattled and pinnacle, and contains 4 bells. A handsome organ was built by subscription 1764. The church, as the townsmen report, was enlarged by one Arundel, Stuart to the Earl of Pembroke, about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign; but it was most probably done by Sir Thomas Arundel. Adjoining is a spacious churchyard beautifully planted with rows of lime trees, and bordering on the south on the remains of the wall of the Abbey. It was formerly the burial place of the whole town; four, though we find mention made of cemeteries in the parish of St Martin and St John, it is much to be doubted whether they were made use of before the Reformation."The original church was demolished in or around 1840. The original church was illustrated in a map of 1615.Reproduced by permission of the Dorset History Centre, reference Hutchins "History of Dorset" 3rd edition, volume iii (page 1)

4.

Prior to the closure of the Holy Trinity Church in 1977 there were many fine memorials. One such Memorial can be seen in the ringing chamber of the tower (and below this display). The inscription reads:​Hear lyeth, JOHN BENNETT esq, third son of Thomas Bennett of Pitt House, in the County of Wilts esq. Who died on 5th of February, 1676, a member of Parliament for this borough, and was succeeded in that high honourable trust by his eldest son and executor, Thomas Bennett,esq as yet living.   According to the Rev John Hutchins there was a stone near the south-east end of the churchyard onwhich was inscribed"Here lies the body of Leonard and Dorothy Bowles. Also Joseph Bowles, their grandson aged 34"Hutchins goes on to record that "Mr Joseph Bowles, a native of this town, was a gentleman of parts and learning, A.M. 1719, and a Fellow of Oriel College in Oxford, and elected head librarian of the Bodleian Library in the room of Dr Hudson. In the latter part of his time he became addicted to drink, grew careless and negligent, lost his character, ruined his health, and died here in an obscure manner.”Source: John Hutchins, 'History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset' 3rd edition volume iii (page 51)

1719

1842

5.

According to the British Listed Buildings website the current Church of the Holy Trinity was built between 1841 and 1842 by George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffat.“Materials: Greensand ashlar, blue slate roofs.

Plan: Five-bay nave, west tower, north and south aisles of three bays with porches to the west, transepts to the east. Originally a shallow one-bay chancel, lengthened in 1908. The church had galleries at the west end, and over both aisles and transepts; the west porches also contained gallery stairs.

Exterior: The style is Early English of c. 1300. All round, there are chamfered plinths, moulded stringcourses, and two-stage buttresses with weathered offsets and gabled tops. The windows are mostly uncusped lancets, single or grouped, with hoodmoulds and blocked label stops. Below the eaves of both aisles and clerestory are broad raised bands with regular dentil blocks set below, like a corbel table. The gables have shaped kneelers, and pointed copings with a fat roll-moulding at the apex. Decoration is focussed mainly on the west tower, which is tall and of stately proportion. It has four stages and a prominent polygonal stair turret at the north-west, which rises above the parapet with a big spirelet, a feature associated most with Bristol and North Somerset towers. The turret has blind arcading at two stages. The other angles have smaller pinnacles with weathered caps, the embattled parapet sits above a double corbel table. Each face of the bell stage has one large opening with a double chamfered head, a quatrefoil in plate tracery, and two louvred lights. The next stage down is short, and has a cusped oculus in each face. Next, single lancets north and south, and paired lancets to the west, above a west door with one order of colonnettes. The aisles have paired lancets between buttresses; in the clerestory, single lancets with flat pilaster strips instead of buttresses dividing the bays. Thetransepts have gabled ends with triple lancets above arched entrances. The chancel has in its side walls the original single lancet each side, and the three-light east window (by E. Doran Webb, 1908) has reticulated tracery in the Dec style.” Probably the first Marriage in the new Church:15^th June 1842Thomas  Brickell; of Gold Hill, St Peter’s Parish, shoemaker; son of  Thomas; Elizabeth Higgins; of Bimport, Holy Trinity Parish; daughter of Thomas (Dec’d) and Mary

6.

Over the years much of Shaftesbury has changed but since 1842 there has been one constant presence that, despite its more recent change of use, is still the same prominent landmark visible for many miles around.

2000's