The church, sometimes referred to as Trinity Church, was built in 1827 on North Front as a chapel to the adjacent County Female Penitentiary. The church was built in the Grecian style, but when enlarged in 1847 it was re-modeled in the plainest Norman, with the outside worked in plaster. Philip Brannon’s fine engraving of c.1849 shows the church on North Front alongside the Southampton – Dorchester railway line. After enlargement in 1847 the church became a separate ecclesiastical parish, providing much needed means of worship to the expanding population in the St Mary's area. The church was partially destroyed by bombing in November 1940 (image 2) and by 1944 only the spire remained; following a failed attempt to demolish it with the help of a tree felling machine, the "church tower without a church" remained standing until August 1950, when work began to dismantle the spire. The tower finally fell Saturday evening, September 2 1950 (see clipping below). "Sunday morning church-goers looked thoughtfully to where the church had stood high over the houses in the centre of the town for nearly a century - where even the tower was no more," (Southern Daily Echo 4 Sept 1950.) The northern part of Kingsway now runs through the site.
1. Holy Trinity Church, Kingsland
Philip Brannon’s print of the church and railway line, c.1850.
2. Holy Trinity Church, Kingsland
The church partially destroyed by bombing, 1941
Newspaper clippings:
Further reading:
History of Southampton, by Rev. J. S. Davies, p350. (HS/h)
Southampton Occasional Notes, 2nd Series by ‘Townsman’, p31. (HS/h)
Picture of Southampton (1849), by Philip Brannon, p27, 45. (HS/h)
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