Church Of St Helen

The Church of St Helen is a parish church dating from 1850, designed by Cottingham. It is constructed of thick-thin coursed ashlar with a stone slab roof, ashlar carving and dressings, and features a plinth, grotesque corbel table, three coped gables, and grotesque scrolled brackets above the buttresses. The church comprises a nave, chancel, vestry, bellcote, and sanctus bellcote.

The west end has a central round arched doorway with three orders, elaborately decorated and containing a diagonal matchboarded door. Above the doorway are three double rebated round headed windows, followed by a wheel window flanked by recessed blank panels. Above this is a decorated bellcote with two stages, two round arched openings, a chequerwork coped gable, and a cross. The nave, with three bays, has four buttresses, two string courses, a parapet, and three paired round headed windows on either side. The single-bay vestry features a coped gable, projecting band, two corner buttresses, and a round headed window to the north. The sanctus bellcote has four round headed openings, two blind niches containing figures, a pyramidal roof with lucarnes, and an iron cross.

The chancel, with two bays, has a round headed window with an elaborate reveal to the north, a priest’s door with two orders and a projecting hood containing a plank door with a sanctuary ring to the south, and three round headed openings with chamfered hood moulds to the east. Above the eastern openings is a circular window with a cogged reveal. The aisleless nave has a projecting band and splayed window reveals with zigzag moulding, alongside a deep billet moulded wall plate.

The interior features an elaborate hammer beam roof supported by mask corbels and arched brackets. Principal timbers are adorned with nail head ornament and pierced spandrels and are pegged. A contemporary circular font sits on a circular stem with blind arcading. Fragments of a fine 12th-century font remain on the south side. The elaborate square stone pulpit is set on a polished granite shaft with four subsidiary shafts, reached by stairs through the chancel arch respond. A matching lectern is in a similar style, with a square moulded base of three stages. The Norman-style chancel arch consists of two orders with a hoodmould, clustered shaft responds, and scallop capitals. The north side of the chancel contains a moulded doorway leading to the pulpit stairs and a similar opening to the vestry. The sanctuary features a corbelled table and a gabled aumbry within a round headed opening. To the south are a moulded round headed piscina and elaborate double-columned triple sedilia, alongside a roll moulded opening to the priest’s door. The roof construction mirrors that of the nave. The fittings consist of simple oak pews and choir stalls with triple roll moulded ends, two 19th-century hatchments, and a 20th-century wall memorial tablet.