Church of St Helen is a Grade II listed building in the St. Helens local planning authority area, England. Church. 1 related planning application.
Church of St Helen
- WRENN ID
- first-lime-equinox
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- St. Helens
- Constituency
- St Helens South and Whiston MP: Ms Marie Rimmer (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Helen, Church Street, WA10 3LP
- OS grid reference
- SJ 512 952
- Coordinates
- 53.45165, -2.73496
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Helen is a church built between 1916 and 1926, designed by W.D. Caröe. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings and has a slate roof. The church features a single vessel nave and chancel, with aisles under lean-to roofs, a northeast tower, a chapel, and a south vestry.
The west end includes a narthex flanked by turrets, with four pointed entrances set in segmental headed architraves and quatrefoil panelling above. Flying buttresses support the nave, which has a five-light window with Perpendicular tracery. Low passages with windows of three ogee-headed lights connect to square embattled turrets that have two-light windows. The aisles are supported by canted buttresses and feature three-light Perpendicular windows, while the clerestory also has three-light windows. The chancel has a slightly canted east end with two-, three-, and two-light windows that include transoms.
The tower is characterized by diagonal buttresses and smaller side buttresses. Segmental arches support a gallery below paired two-light straight-headed bell openings, with a plain parapet and a square southeast stair turret. The north face of the tower has a four-light window interrupted by a buttress, and the base of the tower forms the west bay of the chapel, with a four-light east window in the east bay. To the west of the tower, there is a gabled porch and a transept.
Inside, the church features five bay arcades with four-centred arches and taller blind arcades that enclose clerestory windows. The aisles have elliptical-arched arcades leading to passages. The west end includes arches to narthex passages and open octofoils to the turrets. An octagonal font with a Classical font cover is present, and the chancel contains notable woodwork, including choir stalls, a reredos, and parclose screens designed by Caröe. There is also an organ loft in the tower and a two bay minstrels' gallery to the south.
The church demonstrates an imaginative use of brickwork and the tower serves as an important local landmark.
Local climate
Church of St Helen sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,050 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 85% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 77% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 65% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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