Church Of St Helen

The Church of St Helen is a parish church, formerly collegiate, located in Cliffe-at-Hoo. It dates from around 1200 and was remodeled in the early 14th century. The chancel was restored in 1853 by George Austin, while the tower and transepts were completed in 1864 by J.P. St. Aubyn. The nave and tower were further worked on by Romaine-Walker and Tanner in 1884. The church is constructed of ragstone and flint, arranged in knapped bands, and features plain tiled roofs.

This cruciform church includes a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, a porch with a parvis room above, north and south transeptal chapels, and a chancel. The west tower, built in the 13th century, has clasping buttresses, a 15th-century upper stage, and 19th-century battlements with a staircase projection. The nave consists of five bays with deep porches on the south side. The chancel has three bays and features curvilinear tracery in all windows, which have been renewed and include mouchettes and Kentish cusping. The east window was rebuilt using fragments found during the 1884 restoration.

Inside, the nave has arcades of five bays supported by short circular piers with moulded capitals and bases, and wide pointed arches with two slight chamfers. The nave piers are painted with thick red zig-zags, and the clerestory features lancets from the 14th century. The transeptal chapels have full-shafted wall-arcading, with two bays to the east and two narrower bays to the west. Both chapels contain trefoiled piscinas. The chancel includes vaulted sedilia and a piscina that is integral with the fabric, along with ogee arches adorned with crockets, finials, and pinnacles, featuring renewed foliage in the spandrels.

Notable fittings include a tower screen from around 1370 with lights arranged in threes and intersecting mullions, six medieval pews, and some 14th-century glass in the tracery of two chancel windows on the south side, which has been largely restored. There is a 17th-century communion rail, an arcaded pulpit dated 1636, a 15th-century font, and a late 14th-century tomb recess on the north side of the sanctuary with a cusped and subcusped arch.