Church Of St Helen

The Church of St Helen is a parish church with fabric dating from the 13th to the 14th century, restored in 1872-3. It is constructed of ironstone rubble with limestone ashlar dressings and has Welsh slate roofs. The building features a west tower, nave with clerestory, and chancel. The late 13th century four-stage west tower has banded ironstone and limestone in its second and third stages, paired foiled lights in the bell chamber, an embattled parapet with gargoyles, and a west doorway with continuous moulding. Above the doorway is a two-light Decorated window with re-cut tracery. There is a Victorian-style doorway in the aisle made of cobblestones, and the windows have Victorian tracery in a simple Decorated style. The priest's doorway in the tall chancel is in the Decorated style, while the four-light east window is in the Perpendicular style, although the jambs of a medieval window are still visible in the east wall. The north doorway, dating from the 14th century, features shafts and a richly moulded arch, flanked by tall Victorian statues within a Victorian gabled porch. Inside, the tall west tower arch has continuous double chamfering, and the arcades, appearing to be late 13th century, have clustered shafts that support double chamfered arches. The chancel arch, dating from 1872/3, has short shafts supported by angels as corbels. The chancel is mostly Victorian in detail, but it contains a 14th-century piscina with fleurons on the cusped arch and a worn alabaster tomb slab from the 17th century with an incised figure. The medieval font is a plain octagonal basin set on a chamfered Victorian base.