Parish Church Of St Helen

The Parish Church of St Helen is a Grade II* listed building located on Morborne Road in Folksworth and Washingley. The church features a chancel and nave dating from around 1150, a south transept added around 1300, and a porch from the 16th century. The chancel was rebuilt in the Neo-Norman style by Robert Pupplett, who served as rector from 1702 to 1706. In 1850, the chancel was further rebuilt, a north vestry was added, the north nave wall was rebuilt, and a bell-cote was placed on the west gable. The walls are constructed of roughly coursed rubble limestone with Barnack stone dressings, topped with plain tiled roofs from the 20th century.

On the south elevation, there is a nave doorway featuring a four-centred head and a moulded label. A 14th-century window to the west has two trefoiled ogee lights with a square head, moulded label, and head stops. The north doorway, dating from around 1150, has an outer round arch that encloses a tympanum with a diaper pattern, and the jambs are adorned with continuous moulded abaci that form imposts, along with detached shafts featuring scalloped capitals and moulded bases. The south porch includes a four-centred outer archway with two continuous chamfered orders and a large resited gargoyle. The south transept, built around 1300, has a window with three graduated trefoiled lights set in a two-centred head. The chancel contains three similar single-light windows with rounded heads.

Inside, the chancel arch is semi-circular and consists of two moulded orders with chevron ornamentation. The responds are each supported by two detached shafts with capitals carved with scrolls or scallops, featuring a human face and festoons with a face. The hollow chamfered abaci run continuously along the wall. There is a piscina in the south transept with chamfered jambs and a two-centred head, along with a sexfoiled drain dating from around 1300. The font, from around 1500, has an octagonal bowl on an octagonal stem with a square base. Additionally, there is a 13th-century coffin lid decorated with scrolled crosses.