Church Of St Helen

Church of St Helen

This is a medieval parish church of major importance, with origins in the 12th century but substantially rebuilt and extended over subsequent centuries.

The church comprises a three-stage south-west tower, a three-bay nave with two-bay aisles, a south porch, a north-west vestry addition, and a three-bay chancel with a two-bay south chapel. The structure is built primarily of rubble and ashlar sandstone with some limestone dressings. The upper stage of the tower is faced in ashlar limestone, and the roofs are lead-covered.

The earliest part is the 12th-century north arcade and the lower part of the tower. The main body of the church dates to the late 13th and early 14th centuries, with substantial additions in the 15th century including the south chapel, south porch, the west bay of the nave, and the clerestorey. The present roofs and upper stage of the tower also date to this period. The church was restored in 1869 and 1892, and the 19th-century vestry was extended in 1973.

Tower: The lower stages are built of rubble walling. A lancet west window and a string course with three slit windows set in-line sit above. The east side carries a clock. Below the Perpendicular upper stage runs a weathered string course. This upper stage features transomed two-light belfry openings, a string course with water spouts, and an embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles.

Nave and Aisles: The gabled south porch contains a renewed pointed doorway with an older hoodmould and a cuboid apex finial. Inside the porch is a south door with a single order of shafts bearing waterleaf capitals and a moulded segmental arch. The bay to its right has a buttress and a renewed three-light window with reticulated tracery, beneath a coped parapet with pinnacles.

The north aisle contains two two-light windows in double-chamfered surrounds, with the east window featuring a trefoil-headed light. The west end of the nave has a diagonal buttress to its left, a chamfered plinth, and a wave-moulded band interrupted by the west door. The three-light west window has Tudor arching and a hoodmould with carved-head stops.

The clerestorey comprises square-headed windows of two cusped lights, with an embattled parapet and corner pinnacles.

Chancel and South Chapel: The chancel features a chamfered plinth and band with angle buttresses. A central buttress on the north side is accompanied by a renewed three-light window with reticulated tracery, a pointed priest's door, and an early two-light window with trefoil-headed lights and a small hoodmould. Similar early windows flank the easternmost bay. The parapet is embattled at the east end above a three-light window with reticulated tracery, with moulded copings.

The south chapel has a chamfered plinth, wave-moulded band, a diagonal buttress, and a buttress between two three-light square-headed windows with cusped lights. Its parapet matches that of the aisle.

Interior: The north arcade contains one octagonal pier with a moulded capital, supporting round arches with a single step. The remaining arches are double-chamfered and pointed. The south aisle arcade rests on a quatrefoil pier bearing a foliate-carved capital with nailhead motif to the abacus. A blocked doorway in the north side of the tower retains a shouldered lintel.

The church contains an erect effigy of a knight built into the nave west wall and a medieval grave slab against the east wall behind the pulpit.

The chancel preserves 14th-century sedilia with a half-arch at the west end, interrupted by an opening to the south chapel. A trefoil-headed piscina, which has been restored, is also present.

The roofs throughout are of high quality, featuring moulded timbers with cambered tie beams and carved bosses. In the chancel, arch braces spring from carved angels.

Fittings: The nave and aisles retain 17th-century panelling as a dado, with carved dates from around 1630. A 16th-century pew survives with bench ends featuring two tiers of traceried panels and a back rail inscribed with Latin. The screen to the south chapel is partly 17th-century and records a restoration undertaken in 1892 in memory of Reverend Watkins. An early pew within the south chapel also survives.