Church Of St Helen

A parish church of the 15th century built of flint with stone dressings and a lead roof, located at Ranworth. The building comprises a west tower, nave, north porch, south porch, and chancel.

The west tower is three storeys high, featuring flushwork on its base course and on the faces of diagonal offset buttresses. A polygonal north stair turret rises from the tower. The Perpendicular west door and doorway are furnished with head label stops. The west window dates from 1902. Rectangular traceried sound holes with hood moulds pierce the tower walls. Two-light bell openings with Curvilinear tracery are present. Gargoyles sit at the angles below the flushwork battlemented parapet, which terminates with battlemented finials.

The four-bay nave features Perpendicular traceried windows with four-centred arches set between offset buttresses. Flushwork appears on the buttresses, and an ashlar battlemented parapet and verge crown the walls.

The two-storey north porch has been significantly altered: the north doorway is now blocked and the space functions as a vestry. The original north doorway retains attached shafts. A single-light first-floor gable window, flanked by niches beneath a flat hood mould, lights the upper chamber. Two-light ground-floor windows and one-light first-floor windows on the east and west contain medieval glass fragments. The porch features diagonal buttresses and a parapet gable.

The south porch is entered through a Perpendicular door with attached shafts. Above the entrance sits a niche with an ogee cusped head containing a 19th-century effigy. North and south two-light windows with Reticulated tracery flank the interior. Diagonal buttresses and a parapet verge complete the structure. An arch-braced roof spans the interior.

The nave interior is accessed from the south by means of 14th-century double doors and a doorway. These are plank and muntin construction, featuring restored Y-tracery. A hood mould with fleurons runs over the door arch; a head label stop sits to the left.

The two-bay chancel contains Reticulated two-light windows and a central priest's door of 15th-century date. Two-light Perpendicular windows to the south feature stilted basket arches. Grotesques embellish the label stops. Offset buttresses support the walls. The restored east window is Reticulated with three lights. A parapet verge with brick kneelers completes the exterior.

Inside the chancel, the Perpendicular tower arch is supported on attached shafts. A rood loft stair is cut into the north wall. A king post roof, installed circa 1901, runs across the space. A Perpendicular chancel arch with attached shafts separates the chancel from the nave. Remnants of an Easter Sepulchre and aumbry survive on the north chancel wall. An angle piscina with ogee tracery and fleurons in rectangular spandrels is set into the wall, and dropped-sill sedilia sit beneath. An arch-braced roof with shields at the junction of purlins and at the base of wall posts covers the chancel. A roll-moulded sill beam runs along the walls.

The chancel contains one of England's finest painted screens, enclosing the chancel proper and continuing to the north and south to form a reredos and to enclose the ends of side altars. Octagonal candle holders project from the sides of the altars. The central section comprises eight single-light openings with a two-bay central opening whose traceried heads show some crockets. A dado with traceried panels runs beneath. Timber fan vaulting rises to a moulded and carved rood beam, though the pendant section of vaulting and rood loft balustrade are missing. North and south reredos sections display traceried panels with Perpendicular tracery above, set with niches. Attached shafts with crowned capitals divide the panels. A battlemented dado rail runs along the north reredos. Much of the original paint scheme survives, depicting angels and saints within the dado panels, with floral patterns, raised decoration, and extensive gilding. Stencilled patterns are widely employed. The chancel side of the screen is also painted. Medieval floor tiles lie beneath the south section of the screen.

The chancel contains fine 14th-century choir stalls against the screen, fitted with misericords and desks topped with poppy-heads. A 17th-century sanctuary rail with turned newels bearing ball finials and balusters encloses the altar. Twentieth-century benches with medieval ends incorporating poppy-heads provide additional seating. A medieval two-sided lectern on an octagonal shaft with base and capitals stands in the chancel; its original paint scheme depicts on one side the eagle of St John, and on the other, plainsong and verse. An octagonal Purbeck marble font features a blind arcade of semi-circular arches and fleur-de-lys motifs, with the bowl set upon a heavy octagonal base. Several small brasses are mounted on the walls.

A wall monument to Thomas Holdiche of Ranworth Old Hall, died 1579, is set into the north wall. It comprises a pediment and entablature supported on fluted pilasters above a niche with a Tudor arch containing an inscription. Fragments of 14th-century stained glass are visible in the chancel and in windows of the north nave. A 19th-century organ loft occupies the north nave wall.