Some of the most notable furnishings in Holy Trinity Parish Church were brought in from elsewhere in Victorian times. Previously Anglican churches had been relatively free of ornament, but with the rise of the Victorian Gothic style of architecture and the advent of an antiquarian Rector (W.K.Riland Bedford), Sutton church became less austere.
The Norman Font was given to the church in 1856. It is of sandstone, dating from about 1100, with twenty-one carved panels framed by Norman arches, and four grotesque heads form handles on the rim. It originally belonged to the old Norman church at Over Whitacre, but this church fell into ruin and was replaced by a new church in 1766. The new church had a new font, the old font was thrown out and was taken to the village inn at Shustoke, where it was coated with paint and used upside-down as a horse-mounting block. Over fifty years later the Sutton solicitor Edward Sadler obtained it and brought it to his house at 36 High Street where it served as a feature in his back garden, of which he was very proud. The font was much admired, and in 1856 Richard Sadler, Edward’s heir, donated it to the Church. The coats of paint were removed, the marble basin which had served as a font until then was placed inside it, and it has been an admired feature of the church ever since.
Riland Bedford himself did much to ornament the church, adding colour with new stained glass windows. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Archdeaconry of Coventry, which included Sutton Coldfield, was transferred from the diocese of Lichfield to Worcester diocese, so when Worcester Cathedral was being renovated in 1870, Riland Bedford was able to obtain the wood from the choir and organ loft which was being replaced. He re-erected most of this antique wood to form the elaborately carved screens and seats in the chancel. These are of oak, dating from the early seventeenth century, no doubt transported to Sutton along the new railway.
Some of the Worcester oak, along with oak retrieved from St. Michaels at Coventry, was re-used to form the vestibule at the West door of the church. The two ornamental brass door handles in the shape of dolphins in the vestibule were obtained by Riland Bedford from Valletta in Malta, where his daughter Ethel lived. All these noteworthy artefacts will be seen to better advantage when the church is reordered.
Brass door handle in the shape of a dolphin.
The Norman font, showing the interlinked arches and the snakes emerging from the mouths of the grotesque heads.