Church Of St Helen

The Church of St Helen is a parish church largely dating to the 13th century, with parts of the 11th century. A tower and nave are of the 11th century; the chancel was largely rebuilt in 1854 and refitted in 1901 by W.S. Hicks; the Thornley Porch (Chantry Chapel) was founded in 1347, restored in 1691, and converted to an organ-chamber in the late 19th century; a late 18th-century vestry and an early 19th-century porch were also added.

The church is constructed of dressed stone with coursed rubble elsewhere, covered by Welsh slate roofs. It comprises a west tower, an aisleless nave with a south porch and north organ chamber, a chancel, and a north vestry. Most windows were renewed in the 19th century, featuring Geometrical and Decorated tracery.

The three-stage tower has a massive stepped buttress and an 18th-century diamond sundial on the south side, with small round-headed belfry windows on each face. The long, three-bay nave exhibits herringbone masonry at the west end and has three identical buttresses on the south side. The south doorway, within the porch, is round-arched with two worn orders on block capitals, featuring missing shafts. There are two small, blocked windows above the porch, and two 19th-century windows to the east. A blocked pointed window sits above a similar north door, and the roof is steeply pitched.

The long, two-bay chancel is characterized by 19th-century buttresses and windows, with the exception of original lancet windows on both the north and south sides. The diagonally-buttressed east end incorporates a restored three-light Decorated tracery window, with a steeply pitched roof and coped east gable. A small gabled porch provides access. The organ chamber incorporates medieval plinth and masonry from the original Thornley porch. The vestry has a pointed sash window.

Inside, the tower and chancel arches are pointed and double-chamfered, and partly restored. The plastered nave has a 19th-century barrel roof, displaying the Charles II Arms above the tower arch. A circular stone font bowl dates to the 18th century, and a 1897 plaque commemorates Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was baptised at the church. The chancel has a 1901 barrel roof, panelling, and a reredos by W.S. Hicks. Two medieval grave slabs are in the sanctuary, alongside an elaborate, unfinished aedicular wall monument dating to 1712 by Henry Porter. The St. Helena Cross, on the north chancel wall, is a richly carved stone cross, likely from the 12th century, featuring three panels illustrating the legend of the Invention of the True Cross with associated saints Helena and Constantine.