Church Of St Helen

The Church of St Helen is a parish church, now closed, built between 1851 and 1852 by the architect S. S. Teulon in the Early English style. It is constructed of squared limestone rubble and features stone-coped slate roofs. The church consists of a nave with a western bellcote, a chancel, a vestry, and a south porch. The nave and chancel appear undifferentiated from the outside. At the west end, there are two tall lancet windows above which is a vesica. The gabled single belfry has a scalloped arch, narrow angle shafts, and is topped with a cross fleury. On the north side of the nave, there are two lancets and a vestry with small paired lancets on the east wall. The east wall of the chancel features three stepped lancets under a continuous hood mould, while the south wall has two small lancets. The south wall of the nave contains two lancets, one on each side of the porch, and a paired lancet with a trefoil above it. The gabled south porch has a deeply moulded outer arch with angle shafts and a hood mould with floriate label stops. The inner doorway features a continuously chamfered pointed reveal, and the door has decorative ironwork. Incorporated into both side walls of the porch are fragments of 13th-century coffin lids, with the west side displaying a particularly ornate cross fleury.

Inside, the church retains all 19th-century stained glass. Although the nave and chancel are structurally undivided, there is a low cancellum screen with central steps leading to a higher sanctuary. The roofs are arch-braced and supported by carved corbels, with those in the sanctuary having tail terminals. The rear arches of the eastern windows feature collared shafts, annular capitals, and moulded heads with dog-toothing. The north wall houses a pulpit modeled on a 13th-century original from Tupholme Abbey. A trefoil-headed moulded arched door leads to the vestry, and a left turn leads to the canted pulpit set within the thickness of the wall, which also has a moulded trefoil arch above it. These two openings are separated by a wall shaft with an annular capital and base featuring a tail terminal. All fittings are from the 19th century, except for the 14th-century font, which has a plain octagonal bowl and a moulded base with a 19th-century moulded shaft.