Church Of St Helen

Church of St Helen

Parish church built in 1882, designed by Hodgson Fowler in the Decorated style of the 14th century. The building is constructed in ashlar with ashlar dressings and plain tile roofs throughout.

The exterior displays characteristic Gothic features including a chamfered and moulded plinth, moulded sill band, chamfered eaves, and coped gables with gabled kneelers and crosses. All windows are fitted with hood moulds. The plan comprises a west tower and spire, nave, chancel, organ chamber, vestry, and south porch.

The west tower has three stages and rises to an octagonal spire. The tower features two string courses, an eaves band, eight gargoyles, and four crocketed pinnacles with a crenellated parapet. On the west side are a pair of diagonal buttresses with five setoffs; on the east side are a pair of corner buttresses with three setoffs. The setback octagonal spire carries two tiers of gabled lucarnes and a finial. The south side of the tower has a canted stair turret with finial and three stair lights, above which sits a central clock in a surround inscribed 'Watch and Pray'. The west side displays an ogee-headed triple lancet with a small single lancet above. The north side has a similar lancet. The third stage contains four cusped-head Decorated double lancet bell openings with coved reveals.

The nave has three bays. The south side features a double ogee-headed lancet and, to its right, a triple lancet in early 14th-century style, alongside a moulded south doorway with traceried panelled door. The north side has three double lancets.

The chancel extends over two bays and has a buttressed east end with two small lights to a crypt set in chamfered reveals. Above these is a triple lancet with moulded mullions and flowing tracery, with traceried panels at its base. The south side of the chancel has two depressed ogee-headed lancets.

The organ chamber has a hipped roof with finial. To the west is a hipped lean-to porch with a shouldered doorway and, to the north, a double lancet in a coved and rebated square-headed reveal. A lean-to vestry to the east has a single coped gable and double side-wall stack; its north side contains a chamfered doorway under a relieving arch, while the east side displays a leaded light in a chamfered reveal, above which are a double lancet and a shield inscribed '1882'.

The south porch is a single bay with lintel band and string course, a double cyma-moulded and rebated doorway, and above it a niche with nodding ogee canopy containing a figure holding a cross.

The interior has stone benches and a principal rafter roof. The tower arch is double cusped and rebated with a coved hood mould and octagonal responds bearing crenellated capitals and moulded bases. The vaulted tower chamber contains a central round opening and features a doorway to the west with hood mould and a window with stained glass dated 1882.

The nave has a sill band and panelled dado, with a cusped timber screen at the west end fitted with stained glass panels. The roof is of king post construction with moulded tie beam and arch braces to collars, curved wind braces, cusped fillets, and ashlar pieces.

The chancel arch is double roll-moulded and rebated with filleted responds bearing moulded caps and bases, and a hood mould with foliate stops. The chancel contains, to the north, a chamfered and rebated organ opening and, to the east, a doorway with traceried panelled door. The east end features traceried and crested timber panelling matching a timber reredos, with sill band, a gradine with foliate bases, and 19th-century stained glass; the south side also has 19th-century stained glass. The roof is a wagon vault with panelled timber construction, moulded timbers, and a crenellated wall plate.

The vestry has a panelled lean-to roof and fitted vestment cupboards.

Fittings include an octagonal font with foliate panels, octagonal foliate base and panelled stem; a canted timber pulpit with traceried panels; a panelled timber lectern on square stem; scroll-ended softwood benches; and two traceried panelled clergy desks.

The tower chamber contains alabaster slabs commemorating Hugh Hercy (1455) and Elizabeth Hercy (1450), which were re-sited in 1882 and re-cut in 1932. There is also an incised slab with cross of the 15th century, together with two 19th-century and one 20th-century brasses.