Church Of St Helen

The Church of St Helen is a parish church built in 1876 by John Wardle for a new parish formed from St John's. It was constructed at a cost of £13,000, funded by Edward Joicey of Whinney House, Durham Road. The church is designed in a large, solid Early English style, featuring coursed, rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings and a graduated lakeland slate roof. It has a cruciform layout with a short apsidal chancel that includes a cross-gabled vestry, large transepts, and a south-west tower topped with a stone broach spire. A north-west porch balances the tower. The exterior is characterized by stepped buttresses, single and grouped lancet windows, and a tower doorway with mouldings and nook-shafts.

Inside, the church features snecked stone with ashlar dressings and an arch-braced timber roof supported by carved corbels. Notable interior elements include a carved stone reredos, pulpit, and font. The church also contains interesting stained glass: in the chancel, there are five lancets in the style of Morris & Co. depicting the Miracles, the Transfiguration, and the Sermon on the Mount. The north and south transepts feature windows with images of evangelists and prophets, possibly by Kempe. The nave's north side includes windows designed by Burne-Jones depicting saints. One window in the south transept is signed by G J Baguley from Newcastle, dated 1902. There is also a brass plate commemorating Edward Joicey, the donor.