Church Of St Helen

Parish church on Burgh on Bain Main Road, with building work spanning the 11th to 16th centuries, including a major restoration in 1871/72. Constructed in coursed and squared limestone rubble with slate roofs.

The church comprises a western tower, nave, aisles, and chancel. The three-stage tower is built of squared rubble with stepped buttresses on the west face only and a battlemented parapet with corner pinnacles. The south side features a rectangular light with ovolo moulded mullions in the surround. The top stage has a triangular headed window with moulded surround. The date 1871 is inscribed above the clock. The west door is a 19th-century addition, double chamfered, with two lights above matching the south side arrangement. A single window lights the second stage on the north wall. The tower walls contain several fragments of reused masonry, including three pieces of 12th-century chevron moulding. The west wall of the north aisle preserves a fragment of 14th-century cusped tracery. The north-west angle of the aisle displays massive quoins, with a blocked 11th-century round-headed doorway immediately to the east, possibly reset. The north wall contains two 16th-century windows, one of three lights and one of four lights, both heavily restored. A 19th-century two-light window occupies the east wall.

The chancel holds two 16th-century three-light windows with trefoil heads to the lights; a 19th-century three-light window appears to the north, and another to the east. The south wall mirrors the north wall's arrangement. A 19th-century two-light window appears in the east wall of the south aisle; to its right, the massive quoins of an earlier nave are visible. The south wall features two 14th-century windows of three and four lights respectively, both with cusped ogee heads to the lights, chamfered square surrounds, and hoods. The south doorway is 14th-century, with an outer chamfered surround and hollow chamfered inner order, both having moulded imposts.

Interior

The early 13th-century south nave arcade comprises two bays with octagonal piers and engaged collared angle shafts, moulded capitals, keeled responds, and double chamfered arches. The north arcade is a 19th-century copy of the south. The 11th-century tower arch has a plain rounded head and chamfered imposts. The chancel arch features double chamfers that die into facetted reveals. The nave and aisle walls display unusual elaborate carved stone texts from the 1871 restoration, some with Gothic surrounds and details. On the chancel north wall, a white marble plaque records the restoration of 1871/72 in memory of Flora Zoe Fox. A single chamfered pointed niche appears in the south aisle; at the west end of the north aisle's north wall, the round-headed rear arch of a doorway remains visible.

All fittings are 19th-century, including stone altar rails, an octagonal font, and a facetted ashlar pulpit. The wooden lectern incorporates a handsome late 17th-century Corinthian capital with fine acanthus leaves and shells. The chancel contains 19th-century stained glass.

Monuments

In the tower stands a wall monument with white marble base and grey sarcophagus, flanked by heraldic cartouches and supporting an obelisk bearing a pair of oval carved panels commemorating Thomas Pindar (died 1741) and his wife, Ann. A semi-circular headed marble plaque with base and sunk circular heraldic panel commemorates late 18th-century members of the Lister family of Girsby Hall, with the base containing a sunk segmental headed panel depicting three Grecian urns.

The lectern capital may possibly derive from the London Wren Church of St Mildred in the Poultry; other fragments of this demolished building have been found in the locality, notably at Thorpe Hall, South Elkington.