Church Of St Helen

The Church of St Helen, also known as Witton Church, originated in the 14th century with significant enlargement during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, followed by a 19th-century restoration. It is constructed of red sandstone with flat roofs hidden behind parapets. The church comprises a west tower, a 5-bay aisled nave with a south porch, a 2-bay chancel with a canted apse, a south chapel, a north vestry, and a 2-story sacristy.

The crenellated, 4-stage west tower features diagonal buttresses, a west door, a basket-arched panel-traceried 4-light west window, 2-light bellringers’ windows on the north and south faces, an empty niche on the west face, a clock with faces on all sides, paired panel-traceried 2-light bell openings, and a band carved with foliage, faces, and beasts at the belfry floor, and simpler decoration above the west window and below the bellringers' windows. Gargoyles are present, and the south side of the bellringers’ window is carved in raised letters reading “THOMAS:HUNTER”. The aisles and clerestory have 4, 5, and 6-light panel-traceried windows.

The crenellated south porch contains a replaced pair of oak doors within a basket-arched opening and has square-headed windows on each side. The south chapel has a 5-light east window set in a canted niche, with carved quatrefoils and 5 panels of blank tracery below. The apse windows are 5-light and represent a transitional style between Curvilinear and Perpendicular. A 19th-century organ chamber, vestry, and sacristy are situated north of the chancel.

Inside, the tower arch is basket-arched and lacks capitals. The aisle arcades feature piers with coved corners and responds to all faces, with bell capitals. A pier remains from a former, lower chancel arch, displaying a vertical joint in the stonework at the junction of the nave with the south chapel and the organ chamber. A fine continuous camber-beam-and-panel oak roof covers the nave and chancel, incorporating diagonal cross-braces and carved bosses at the junctions of the main and secondary beams. A framed set of royal arms is displayed on the south wall of the tower. The clock, dating to 1888, was given by a vicar as a memorial to his father, Hibbert Binney DD, Bishop of Nova Scotia (1851-1887). In 1909, the eight bells were recast and the clock chimes improved to commemorate Canon Binney’s jubilee as vicar. The church contains late 19th-century glass depicting biblical scenes. The furnishings are mostly late 19th century or later.

The church is historically significant as one of three major medieval salt town churches in Cheshire, along with St Mary's Nantwich and St Michael's, Middlewich.