Church Of St Helen

Church of St Helen, Stapleford

A parish church of medieval origin, substantially developed through the 13th to 16th centuries, with major restoration campaigns in 1785 and by T. G. Jackson in 1878, plus a memorial chapel added in 1923 also by Jackson. The building is constructed of coursed rubble with dressed stone and ashlar, featuring gabled and lean-to slate roofs with chamfered plinth, coped and crenellated parapets, and coped gables with crosses throughout.

The west tower dates to the 13th century but was raised in the 14th. It has two stages with four clasp buttresses, a plinth, string course, and coved eaves beneath a crenellated parapet. The south side of the first stage contains a lancet, while the west side has a restored doorway with hood mould. Above this are four early 14th-century double lancets with chamfered and rebated reveals. An octagonal setback spire of 15th-century date rises above, topped with a weathercock.

The nave has an early 16th-century clerestory of three bays with a crenellated parapet (1876). A single large water spout projects to the north; the south side has two similar spouts. The south side walls contain two untraceried triple lancets with square-headed reveals and hood moulds.

The north aisle, rebuilt in 1878, comprises three bays with a string course and four buttresses, plain gables, and an early 14th-century lancet with intersecting tracery at the west end, restored with hood mould. The north side displays three small double lancets. The south aisle dates to the 13th century and has three bays with a moulded plinth and moulded parapet (1878). It features a diagonal buttress to the west and a single buttress to the south. The south side has two cusped double lancets with hood moulds and stops to the right, while the west end has a restored early 14th-century triple lancet with intersecting tracery and coved reveal.

The chancel features a coped east gable with gabled kneelers and a cross (1878), and a pair of diagonal buttresses. The east end contains an early 14th-century five-light lancet with intersecting tracery and a quatrefoil head.

The rebuilt 19th-century vestries have gables of differing heights, one weatherboarded, with plain and diagonal buttresses. The north side has a door with hood mould flanked by three shouldered lancets; the east end has a double lancet with hood mould.

The memorial chapel, designed in 15th-century style and incorporating earlier work, has two bays with a plain coped gable and parapet. Its east end displays the foundation stone laid by the Duke of Portland in 1923, with a re-set 14th-century triple lancet with reticulated tracery, hood mould and mask stops above. The south side has two diagonal and a single central buttress. An off-centre moulded door is flanked by single triple lancets with Gothic segmental heads. Above is a re-set sundial inscribed "Vigilia Oraque 1679". The south porch, constructed in 1785 and altered in 1878, has a moulded pointed south doorway with hood mould and a coped gable containing an empty niche and cross, with stone benches and a common rafter roof inside. Its inner doorway is plain 13th-century work.

Interior Features

The tower arch is 13th-century with double chamfering and rebating, now fitted with a 20th-century glazed traceried screen. The nave arcades, dating to the late 13th century, have three bays with octagonal piers featuring simply moulded bases and capitals. The arches are double chamfered and rebated, with hood moulds to the north side. The roof dates to 1878 and features principal rafters with hammer beams constructed from earlier tie beams. The north and south aisles have lean-to roofs (1878). The north aisle east end retains a partially blocked 13th-century arch and displays a stained-glass War Memorial window and brass by P & Q (1945). The south aisle east end has a moulded arch opening to the Memorial Chapel, with a stained-glass window by H. P. Thomas (1982) at its west end.

The chancel arch is of early 14th-century style, reconstructed in 1878. The north side contains a screened recess with the organ and a doorway with aumbry. The east end has a mid-20th-century panelled reredos and a stained-glass window by Mayer & Co. (1877). The south side features a 19th-century piscina to the east and 13th-century style gabled triple sedilia, with two openings to the west fitted with a 15th-century style traceried screen. The principal rafter roof (1878) has strutted collars.

The memorial chapel features an east end stained-glass window (1918) and a very low-pitched king post roof.

The font, dating to around 1300 and re-sited in 1976, has a tapered base and stem with an irregular moulded conical bowl. It is topped by an unusual spun copper cover with turned knob of late 17th-century date. An octagonal traceried ashlar pulpit was created in 1878. The brass eagle lectern is 19th-century, and the altar rail rests on ornate iron stands of late 19th-century date. The communion table, with traceried panels, was designed by T. G. Jackson in 1915. Traceried stalls and desks, and plain benches, date to 1877.

Monuments

The church contains an incised slab to Robert Tevery and his wife, dated 1571. A re-sited alabaster monument of 1639 commemorates Gervase Tevery and his wife, featuring a panelled alabaster table with two life-size effigies, three kneeling life-size daughters and an infant son in front, and above, an aediculed tablet with Latin inscription flanked by angels and Corinthian columns, beneath an open segmental pediment with crest and skull finials.

An aediculed Renaissance Revival wall monument to Johannes Tevery, early 17th-century, features an apron, Doric columns, pediment, and Latin-inscribed panel with Arms. A scrolled alabaster tablet to Georg Jackson and wife dates to 1684. Pedimented alabaster and marble tablets are dated 1788 and 1795, with a similar Classical tablet featuring an obelisk, dove, skull and bones also from 1795. A larger Classical tablet with obelisk, urn and sphinxes commemorates George John Borlase Warren (1802) and is by Bacon Junior. A pedimented ashlar war memorial dates to 1918. Two 19th-century tablets and four tablets inscribed with the Creed and Lord's Prayer are also present.