Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady Help of Christians and St Helen

Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady Help of Christians and St Helen

This is a Roman Catholic church built in 1868–9 in the Early English Gothic style, designed by Thomas Goodman of Southend. It was enlarged with additions made between 1899 and 1903 by A J C Scoles.

The walls are faced with yellow brick with red and black brick bands, and are dressed with Bath stone. The roofs are covered with plain tiles.

The church plan consists of a nave with north and south aisles, a southwest porch, shallow transepts, a chancel flanked by chapels, and a sacristy to the north that connects with the presbytery.

The most prominent elevation faces Milton Road to the east. It features a large five-light sanctuary window with plate tracery and attached marble shafts. Below the window is a chequerboard brick panel above the sill, with an original stone inscription reading "MARIA AUXILIUM CHRISTIANUM ORA PRO NOBIS" (Mary help of Christians pray for us). A buttress below incorporates the foundation stone. Above the window at the gable head is a stone image niche with pinnacle, though it contains no statue. The flanking chapels have stepped triple lancets.

The west end elevation of the nave is Early English Puginian in character, with a large stepped central buttress flanked by two-light windows featuring plate tracery. The gable is corbelled out from the main wall face and topped by a large and elaborate bellcote with twin bell openings. The two original bells were cast by Messrs Mears and Stainbank of Whitechapel Bell Foundry but have been lost, possibly in wartime. Flanking the bellcote, the west elevation of the south aisle has a triple lancet window with vesica in plate tracery (lighting the original baptistery), while the north aisle has a small single window (to the stair leading to the organ chamber).

On the south side, a projecting porch has its entrance on the east side, featuring a carved stone tympanum and oak doors. The two bays of the south aisle have triple lancet windows, and the transept has a sexfoil round window in plate tracery.

On the north side, three aisle bays contain triple windows, and a small transept has a round window similar to that on the south side but with a lean-to structure below for confessionals. The sacristy adjoins to the north.

Interior

Some of the original internal polychrome brickwork has been painted but remains exposed on the nave walls. The woodblock floor has Minton tiles in the side chapels and a small tiled area near the entrance. The sanctuary is carpeted; its original Minton tiles were replaced with woodblock after the Second World War. The timber nave roof features arch braces to the collars with boarding above, while the lean-to aisle roofs are concealed by plaster ceilings. At the west end of the nave is a delicate Gothic oak organ gallery dating to 1906.

The nave arcades consist of four bays with pointed chamfered arches carried on stout stone piers (now painted) with elaborate capitals carved by Thomas Earp. The aisle windows are simply chamfered without other ornament. The wide chancel arch is carried on carved corbels. The sanctuary has a ribbed pointed timber ceiling and wide arches to the side chapels, with richly carved capitals.

Fixtures and Fittings

The altar was designed by F A Walters and made by Earp and Hobbs in 1895, though it has subsequently been reduced in size, modified, and moved forward. It is carried on four stubby marble columns with a wide central support carved at the front with the Agnus Dei. Behind the altar, the stone reredos set into the east wall is also from 1895, though likewise modified. Alabaster altar rails dating to 1949 are retained in the sanctuary and side chapels, though their gates are in storage.

The north (Lady) chapel contains a stone piscina and a modern altar with a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. The south chapel (now the Blessed Sacrament chapel) has a timber altar of 1953. A small painted octagonal font is now located in the south transept. The original seating consists of open-backed oak benches with elbowed and chamfered ends.

Stained Glass

The east window is a replacement of the 1903 window lost during wartime and contains the same figures. It was made by the Hardman firm of Birmingham, as were the east window of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, two triple windows in the south aisle, and the triple window at the west end of the south aisle (the former baptistery), the last installed in memory of Father Moore and replacing the window of 1912. Also in the Blessed Sacrament chapel is a smaller window dedicated to Canon McKenna (died 1948; artist not identified). The north aisle contains surviving earlier windows ranging in date from 1904 to 1918.

The linked presbytery, the former school building to the north of the church (by Scoles), and a later school building of 1927 to the southwest of the church are excluded from this listing.