Holy Trinity Church, Bradford on Avon

Holy Trinity Bradford on Avon dates from the 12th century. It is most likely to have been built on the site of a Saxon Minster; possibly the 7th century church founded by St Aldhelm and mentioned by William of Malmesbury. There is a possibility that the very earliest church was built close to Lady Well in Newtown but there is little archaeological evidence for Saxon settlement in Bradford. As built the church consisted of a chancel, nave and probably a tower. In the early 14th century the current tower foundations were built; the chancel was extended and a Lady Chapel was added on the north east side. In the early 15th century a chantry to St. Nicholas was built to the west of this. The two were later merged to form the current north aisle. The interior of the church has been much changed over the years but there are still tombs dating from the 14th century, a 15th century octagonal font and the finely carved head of a young woman, which probably dates from the 13th century. There is also a part of the rood screen displayed on a wall in the nave. In the late 15th/early 16th century the church, apart from the chancel, was substantially rebuilt in the Perpendicular style. The tower was heightened; a chantry chapel to the Holy Trinity, added to the south east, and the Lady Chapel refurbished as a chantry to the Virgin Mary. This chantry chapel was founded by Thomas Horton, a wealthy clothier who died in 1530.

The church was much neglected in the early 19th century and was in a dilapidated condition when Canon Jones undertook a major restoration in 1864-1866. The church was then virtually rebuilt in the 1860s; the chancel arch, nave south wall, the south east chantry (now a sacristy), porch, nave roof and north aisle arcade [with its unique ribboned pillars] all date from this time. Only the Norman chancel; the perpendicular tower arch and the restored north aisle roof with its early 17th century bosses remain, though the perpendicular nave windows and nave buttresses were cleaned and re-built. The Norman nave was not that much smaller than the present one. The chancel roof dates from the 1880s and replaced a plaster ceiling of 1732.

The church possesses a Bishop';s Bible of 1572, now deposited in the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives, has a peal of eight bells, with the earliest dated 1614, and has a clock without a dial, which strikes both the hour and each quarter. The church is in the Bradford Deanery of the Diocese of Sarum. Registers, other than those in current use, for christenings and burials from 1579, and for marriages from 1580 are in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre at Chippenham.