Church Of Saint Helen

Church of Saint Helen

The Church of Saint Helen is a parish church of considerable historical importance, with architectural elements spanning from the late 13th century through to 19th and early 20th century restoration work.

The church underwent significant changes in the 19th century: the chancel was rebuilt and the roof replaced in 1839. Restorations in 1892, carried out by Ewan Christian, included re-flooring and re-seating the nave and aisles, re-roofing the south aisle, and repairing windows. The tower and porch were rebuilt in 1901–2 by C Hodgson Fowler of Durham.

The building is constructed from ironstone rubble and squared blocks, chalk rubble, flint and cobbles, with limestone ashlar dressings used to face the nave clerestory and tower parapet. The tower has been re-faced in sandstone, and the north aisle is rendered.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay nave with three-bay aisles, a south porch, and a two-bay chancel. The tower is in two stages with angle buttresses, a restored pointed two-light traceried west window, and a 20th-century single trefoiled light to the north. The belfry openings feature two-light traceried lights (restored to north and west) with bold hoodmoulds and headstops, a string course, angle gargoyles, and a coped embattled parapet with crocketed angle pinnacles.

The south aisle has shallow buttresses and pointed two-light traceried windows with encircled quatrefoils, along with a pointed three-light east window with intersecting tracery and hoodmould. A string course, coped parapet and crocketed angle pinnacles complete the external treatment.

The north aisle features a chamfered plinth and buttresses, a pointed chamfered door with hoodmould and rustic headstops, a pointed two-light window with curvilinear tracery, a square-headed two-light trefoiled window, a 15th-century triangular-headed three-light trefoiled window with hoodmould, a pointed three-light traceried east window, and a triangular-headed three-light mullioned window. Crocketed angle pinnacles continue the decorative scheme.

The nave clerestory displays triangular-headed three-light trefoiled windows with hoodmoulds, a string course, parapet and crocketed angle pinnacles.

The chancel has buttresses at the angles and between bays, with those to the south-east carved with grotesques. A pointed two-light south window with restored Y-tracery, hoodmould and foliate stops, a north lancet, and a pointed three-light Y-traceried east window with hoodmould and foliate stops are principal features.

The porch is built with a chamfered plinth and angle buttresses, a round-headed outer arch with mouldings dying into the jambs, and a coped gable with a re-set medieval grotesque. The inner arch is round-headed with plain moulded imposts and a hoodmould.

Interior. The arcades contain three late 13th-century bays, extended eastward in the later 13th to early 14th century. They feature pointed double-chamfered arches with carved head corbels to the south. The north piers are keeled quatrefoil with circular abaci and one inserted pier with quatrefoil abacus. The south piers are filleted quatrefoil, one with nailhead moulded abacus, and one inserted plain quatrefoil pier. Moulded capitals and bases are found throughout, more ornate on inserted piers.

A 14th-century pointed moulded tower arch of two orders with hoodmould and headstops marks the junction with the tower. The line of the former nave gable is visible above. A pointed double-chamfered chancel arch with inner order dying into jambs separates the nave from the chancel.

A pointed piscina to the south side of the chancel features a mutilated bowl. The north aisle lean-to roof has moulded tie-beams and butt-purlins with 16th and later carved bosses, one dated 1839. Similar bosses are re-set on the 19th-century pulpit and on 19th-century nave and chancel roofs.

A worn re-used medieval grave slab at the west end of the north aisle shows an indent for a small brass of two figures. A former 11th to 12th-century circular font bowl is located in the south aisle. The present font has a 13th-century circular bowl with intersecting arches on a later cylindrical column base.

The church contains 14th-century stained glass in the top section of the pointed north aisle window and in the south aisle east window, including a crucifix and a figure of Saint Mary.