Church Of St Mary And St Helen

The Church of St Mary and St Helen is a parish church largely dating to the 14th century, with a tower incorporating masonry from a church built around 1170. It was extensively restored and substantially rebuilt in 1875, with a restoration in the 19th century by J Francis Doyle. The church is constructed of coursed squared red sandstone with ashlar dressings, covered by slate roofs with red tile ridge cresting, and features stone copings, gable crosses, and finials.

The church includes a 2-bay chancel with a north vestry, a 6-bay aisled nave, a south porch, and a west tower. The chancel east window has three stepped lancets with stained glass, flanked by diagonal buttresses. Aisle gable ends feature pairs of trefoil-headed lancets with trefoils above, beneath hoodmoulds with face stops. Consistent features include a high plinth with a cavetto cornice and an ogee sill-string. Most aisle windows are lancets. The south porch has pointed oak doors, and a separate pointed oak door is located in the east aisle wall. The north vestry is accessed through a recessed porch and door.

The four-stage west tower has a weathered plinth and diagonal buttresses. It includes a small pointed west door with a trefoil window above, sunken narrow windows, and louvred 2-light traceried openings in the upper levels. A datestone on the south face indicates a 1697 restoration date. The tower is topped by a crenellated parapet with four main face gargoyles.

Inside, the chancel features a twisted wrought iron chancel rail, a painted stone reredos with statues, painted features, gablets, and crocketed pinnacles, a brass rail, and a mosaic floor in the Sanctuary. There are also three-seat sedilia and panelled oak choir stalls. The nave arcades have alternately octagonal and round columns with moulded capitals. The round tower arch is fitted with ornate memorial gates dating to approximately 1904. A blind arcade of six shafts high on the east wall commemorates the earlier origins of the church. The chancel has a waggon roof, while the nave features a diagonally boarded hammerbeam roof. The church also includes pitch pine benches, nave wainscotting with a quatrefoil frieze, a C16 octagonal roll-moulded stone font with quatrefoils and cusped lancet panels, and a panelled oak pulpit on a stone base. Memorials include a 1914-1919 memorial window flanked by names on slate tablets. Fragments of Saxon crosses are mounted at the west end of the church. Stained glass is by Morris and Co, and Kempe.