Church Of St Helen

Church of St Helen

A parish church standing on the west side of High Street in Willingham. The building dates from the mid 12th century, with significant late 17th-century work and extensive restoration and reconstruction undertaken in 1880 by the architects Brodrick and Smith.

The church is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with limestone ashlar dressings. The roofs are plain tiled with stone coped gables, cross finials and decorative ridge tiles.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave with south porch, and a rectangular chancel with a north vestry.

The west tower was substantially remodelled in the 19th century. It has a plinth and quoins, with a small, pointed, very narrow west doorway set to the left, featuring a chamfered surround and plank door. Above this is a small lancet window, with a rectangular window immediately above. Two string courses run across the face above. The north side contains two small rectangular staircase lights. Bell openings on all four sides are fitted with 19th-century pointed heads containing two pointed cusped lights with lower cusped ogee tracery; the hood moulds are continuous and joined on all four sides by a string course. The eaves are finished with 19th-century moulding, eight gargoyles, battlements and eight ornate pinnacles.

A plinth runs around the base of the nave and chancel. On the north side of the nave is a blocked 12th-century doorway to the west, which retains its round head, impost blocks, chamfered jambs and hood mould. Three 19th-century rectangular windows occupy the east part of this wall, each with two cusped ogee-headed lights, hood mould and label stops.

The north vestry has a three-light pointed window on its north side, featuring reticulated tracery, hood mould and label stops. Its east side contains a pointed doorway with chamfered surround and plank door.

The east end of the 19th-century chancel displays a three-light pointed window with cusped five-petalled mouchettes, hood mould and label stops. The south side of the chancel has rectangular windows: some with two round-headed lights and lower cusped ogee tracery with rectangular hood mould and label stops; others with two ogee-headed cusped lights, rectangular hood mould and label stops.

The south porch features squat angle buttresses and a string course. Its north and south sides contain small two-light windows. The pointed south doorway reuses late 12th-century fragments, incorporating flanking columnar jambs with rich foliate capitals (the western capital is 19th-century work). The doorway has a hood mould. The porch interior contains flanking benches and a pointed doorway with chamfered surround, hood mould, foliate label stops and plank door. Beyond the porch to the west is another 19th-century rectangular window with two cusped ogee-headed lights, hood mould and label stops.

The interior features a 19th-century tower arch with a pointed head. Its inner order is corbelled out on large angels, while the outer order is chamfered; the hood mould carries foliate label stops. The irregularly shaped tower interior preserves a 12th-century pointed chamfered doorway leading to the stairs, fitted with a plank door.

A 17th-century round-headed chancel arch spans between the nave and chancel, with impost blocks, hood mould and large round label stops.

The north vestry contains a 19th-century aumbry with ornate corbels supporting a wooden beam, a screen around the organ, and an aumbry in the north wall featuring ornate cusping, nook shafts and similar detail. The roofs throughout the interior are 19th-century wagon roofs.

Furnishings include a 17th-century chair with ornate panelled back and arms, an ornate 19th-century altar rail, and several 14th-century square-headed traceried bench ends. A 12th-century drum font is decorated with small pointed arches on coupled shafts.

Notable monuments in the tower include a large marble monument to Elizabeth Dymok, died 1741, ornamented with scrolls, flowers, winged cherubs and coats-of-arms, and a white marble monument to Thomas Wells, died 1781, and his family, with an urn, lilyheads and winged cherub.