Church Of St Helen

Church of St Helen, Abbotsham

An Anglican parish church of early 13th-century date, with a tower of approximately 1300 and a south chapel of early 14th-century date. The building was restored in 1870. It is constructed of coursed slatestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a gabled slate roof with 19th-century coping and kneelers.

The church follows a cruciform plan, with an early 13th-century nave and chancel, a three-stage north-east tower of approximately 1300, and an early 14th-century south chapel. A late 19th-century vestry extends to the south.

The windows reflect various periods. The east window is a mid to late 19th-century composition of three graduated lancets. The north side of the nave retains an early 13th-century two-light chamfered round-arched window with a 19th-century mullion and sill, and a 13th-century chamfered lancet window to the south. The nave's east gable contains label moulds over two 17th-century two-light mullioned windows and a 14th-century trefoiled light. The south side of the nave includes a mid 19th-century two-light Decorated-style window, a Y-tracery window, and a 13th-century lancet window flanking a mid 19th-century porch with pointed-arched doorways and studded door. A mid 19th-century three-light Decorated-style window appears in the west wall.

The south transept contains an early 14th-century quatrefoil light to the east, an early 14th-century two-light south window with curvilinear tracery and 20th-century mullions beneath a hood mould, a mid to late 19th-century four-light west window, and two 2-light Y-tracery windows set in square-headed architraves.

The south vestry has a hood mould over a pointed chamfered doorway and a lateral stack flanked by trefoiled lancets.

The north-east tower displays offset corner buttresses to its lower stage. Above a blocked door to the north is a Y-tracery 2-light window of approximately 1300, with a similar window of 19th-century date to the east. Beneath the string course of the belfry stage is a 13th-century lancet window, and the belfry stage itself contains Y-tracery 2-light windows of approximately 1300. A string course supports the crenellated parapet.

A rood-stair projection occupies the north-east corner of the nave. Much of the nave shows 19th-century restoration, including offset buttresses, hammer-dressed quoining to the south-west, and other fenestration work.

Interior

The walls are rendered. A beautifully carved reredos features angels and a central nativity scene set in crocketed canopies, created in memory of Reverend E.M.W. Sealy (died 1914) and his son (died 1915). At the same time, a piscina was restored with a marble basin. A 19th-century chancel arch divides the spaces.

Fifteenth-century waggon roofs with moulded ribs and foliate-carved bosses cover the chancel (with some 19th-century restoration), nave, and south transept. The nave roof features carved figures holding shields emblazoned with emblems of various trade guilds: a fuller's tucker (pair of scissors), carpenter's square, hammer and axe, anchor, spade, and mason's trowel. One shield bears the arms of Tavistock Abbey, which held the rectory of the church. Pointed chamfered arches span the transepts.

The chancel contains late 19th-century choir tiles and encaustic sanctuary tiles laid by Henrietta Josepha Hatherly in memory of her sister (died 1847), as well as a marble floor laid in memory of Reverend R.W. Sealy (died 1914). The nave includes a late 19th-century chair and eagle lectern, and a Gothic-style pulpit erected in 1896.

A 12th-century font has a fluted bowl set on a cable-moulded stem. Fifteenth and 16th-century bench ends are carved with tracery, foliate decoration, Renaissance emblems, Christ bearing the Cross, emblems of the Passion, and the initials J.W. together with the woolstapler's mark. John Willett was responsible for plasterwork dated 1616 at Coombe House. A traceried bench front next to the west door is predominantly 19th-century but includes some 15th-century fragments and vine-trail moulding. Pews built in 1724 bear brass plates recording names of farms in the parish. These plates originated from a seating dispute and mark seats allotted by a commission appointed in 1723 by the Bishop of Exeter.

The chancel monuments include tablets to Anthony Hony (died 1639), Reverend William Walter (died 1846), and John Walker (died 1807) and his sons, plus a mid 19th-century Gothic-style tablet to the Fortescues and family and a heraldic achievement above a memorial to Margaretta Burges (died 1721/2). The nave contains memorial tablets dated 1835, 1916, and 1917, and a memorial to John Willett of Combe (died 1736) featuring a heraldic achievement in a broken segmental pediment flanked by angels, above an oval inscribed panel surrounded by drapery swags and flanked by scrolls and Corinthian columns. Mid 19th and 20th-century brasses and tablets appear in the north transept.