Church Of St Helen

TL 1714 14/428 19.10.53

WHEATHAMPSTEAD HIGH STREET (west side) WHEATHAMPSTEAD

CHURCH OF ST HELEN

GV I

Parish church. Pre-Conquest and Norman origin. Chancel, c,1230. crossing tower, late C13. Nave and aisles, early-mid C14. N and S transepts, c.1330-50. N vestry added c.1380, but altered and enlarged 1897. Whole church was restored 1865-6 by Edward Browning. Flint rubble. Stone dressings. Slate roofs. Cruciform plan, the nave and chancel equal length. Large central tower with leaded pyramid roof surmounted by a spire. Many good Decorated period windows, especially to the transepts and the chancel N and S walls. Early C14 W door with ball flower ornament in double hollow surround. S porch of similar date with chamfered arch and attached shafts. Interior: nave arcade of 3 arches; octagonal piers, moulded capitals and bases. Roof with arch-braced collar trusses. Figured stone corbels. Crossing has broad chamfered piers and arches. S transept has stone arch in S wall, said to be a Saxon doorhead, and the E wall has an intricate decorated style window with fleurons in the jambs. Corresponding window in the N transept has ballflower ornament and beneath the sill is an intricate blind arcade of c.1330. Large N window with net tracery. The chancel E end has 3 lancet windows of c.1230 set in deep splays and with deeply cut moulded arches. C15 piscina in jamb of SE window. Door to vestry with dog-tooth moulded arch. Font at W end of nave is early C14, octagonal, with quatrefoil frieze. Early C17 oak pulpit with shallow strapwork ornament. Jacobean screen at entrance to N transept, probably fragment of a former W gallery. Pews behind this are early-mid C17, one dated 1631. Many good monuments: alabaster tomb chest to Sir John Brocket and his wife (1558) with two recumbent figures and armorial frieze; large wall monument to Elizabeth Garrard on W wall of N transept, 1630s: broad arch surround with columns, broken pediment overthrow and semi- reclining alabaster figures; next to this a classical wall plaque to Sir John Garrard (d.1700). On E wall the many plaques include one by Thorwaldsen, 1817. (RCHM (1910); Pevsner (1977)).

Listing NGR: TL1765814020