04/09/2026
Today I had a very interesting visit to the Trinity Hall with a small number of local historians namely Royston Cartwright, Graham Carter and Rosa Matheson. Kris Talikowski from Swindon 24 also came along, generously giving up his time to join us and create a news media article about the Equippers Church and its new home.
Located at the bottom of Victoria Road in Swindon the building started life in 1899 and was called the Trinity Presbyterian Church, however in the late 1990s during a second renovation it was renamed the Trinity Hall, I’m happy to say it has gone full circle and after many years it is again quite rightly being referred to as a Church thanks to The Equippers a non-denominational church in Swindon with a current congregation of about 200. They purchased the building and were handed the keys in June 2026.
I’m not going to delve into the history of this church as avid followers of my page may remember that I covered this some weeks ago. That post has led to the organising of this visit to tour the historic building.
Our hosts were Jamie & Ben, and we started out right at the bottom of the church in the basement which originally housed school rooms and the Vestry. I was quite impressed by how many rooms were in this space, together with a kitchen, office and store this level is ideal for pre school and children’s general activities. It also lends itself very well as a community workshop space.
We then made our way up to what is the ground floor, this is a real work in progress and they are busy stripping back semi modern partition walls that will open up the area.
This was the original church level and you would have walked up the steps at the front from the pavement and through a large impressive arched entrance doorway. This level would have been full of church pews with an alter at the far end and was designed to sit a congregation of 400 people.
There is something very interesting at this level. The current floor is a false floor and sits above the original by about 5 - 6 inches, it is of fairly modern construction and my guess would be that it was part of the second refurbishment at the end of the 90’s.
A small part has so far been removed and the original hardwood stained Herringbone floor is visible below. So why was it built up and covered?
Well at the moment there isn’t an answer to this, it could be that the floor was lifted to carry modern day pipes and electrical cables. Or perhaps the removal of the pews left too many holes and too much damage to the floor, however all will become clear once the false floor is removed.
When this floor is fully refurbished it will become a community cafe, the area will be of an open design that will be used for events, community needs and much more.
Now originally this was pretty much the extent of the building, you would have sat in your pew listening to the sermon and you could have looked up at the interior of a fantastic roof. But this has not been possible for many years. We think not since the first refurbishment in the 1950’s due to another floor that has been introduced that stretches across the entire internal area of the building. There is overwhelming evidence that this floor was added at a later date as it has been fitted a good 18 inches above the cill height of the stained glass windows that run along both side of the building.
The creation of an upper floor means that this is now the congregational area and is used for Worship and on a Sunday hosts 2 morning services.
This area was the highlight of the trip, stained glass windows run down each side of the room, there is also a huge window at the front that is sadly in need of repair.
The inside of the roof is high above the floor and is ornate with decorated dark wood trusses and beams that give the area a very traditional and beautiful look. The seating for 300 guests can be stacked out of the way to allow this room to be converted for a number of different event uses.
The Equippers Church will hopefully be here for many years to come and they have a vision for achieving this goal, a vision that our group of historians will follow with interest as the rest of the building is sympathetically refurbished.
We see too many of our historic church and school buildings being turned into flats or multiple occupancy accommodation. This building has been saved from that fate and at the end of our visit we all individually recorded a filmed interview with Kris at Swindon 24 expressing how we felt about our visit and our hopes for this building and Swindon‘s historic future in general.
The Equippers Church are still raising funds to help with the renovation, including the repair and refurbishment of the large stained glass window at the front of the church. If you can help them, please visit their GoFundMe page link below.
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/trinityhall
Also click here to read my original article that details the history of this building.
https://www.facebook.com/share/1GZ3YjpdH7/?mibextid=wwXIfr
And finally, a big thank you again to Jamie and Matt for showing us around today.
South Swindon Parish Council
Cllr Jake Chandler - St Andrews
