Church Of St Helen

Church of Saint Helen

This is a Grade I listed church on the east side of Main Street, Stillingfleet. It is a substantial medieval parish church built in magnesian limestone ashlar with a red plain tile roof, showing building phases from the 12th century onwards.

The earliest work dates to around 1145 and comprises the nave, south porch, and chancel. The 13th century saw the addition of a north aisle and the Chapel of Saint Anne, as well as the lower stage of the west tower. The 14th century brought further additions and alterations, notably the Moreby Chapel dedicated to Saint Mary (founded 1336). The 15th and 16th centuries saw additions to the tower and the widening and heightening of the north aisle with new windows inserted. Major restoration and rebuilding of the east end occurred around 1875-84.

The west tower is two stages tall with short angle buttresses, a single lancet to the west, a band at first-stage level, and on the south side a round-arched recess containing a small mullion window. The bell openings are twin-light and straight-headed. The tower is finished with battlements and pinnacles.

The nave has three bays with a south porch and an aisle to the north. The south side is particularly fine, featuring a richly decorated 12th-century doorway of five orders embellished with foliage, heads, beakheads, two orders of chevron, and an inner order of heads, roundels and beasts supported on shafts with cushion and scallop capitals, some with interlace. The doorway has a hoodmould and gable topped with a dragon gargoyle. The original 12th-century plank door survives with 13th-century modifications, retaining strap hinges and C-hinges with dragon's heads, decorated with Viking longboats, pairs of figures and other ornamental motifs. Above are two 19th-century two-light cusped windows. The next two bays to the east are occupied by the Moreby Chapel. The south side of the Moreby Chapel has a pair of two-light windows with Reticulated tracery under hoodmoulds, and to the east a recut three-light window with reticulated tracery. The north side of the nave contains a reset 12th-century round-arched priest's doorway with chevron moulding and raspberries to the architrave under a hoodmould with dogtooth. Two and three-light straight-headed Perpendicular windows complete this elevation.

The chancel is two bays. Its south side has a 19th-century priest's doorway with a plank door in an ogee-headed, chamfered surround. To the left is a round-arched niche for a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary with remains of plinth and statue. The Decorated first-stage band features foliate ornament. Two pairs of 19th-century trefoil-headed windows in straight-headed surrounds occupy this side. The north side is occupied by the Chapel of Saint Anne and features a three-light, straight-headed, Perpendicular window under a hoodmould, a two-light trefoil-headed window, and to the east a three-light window with reticulated tracery and head stops. The east end has buttresses with offsets, a stepped first-stage band, and a 19th-century three-light window with Perpendicular-style tracery, topped with a cross at the apex of the gable.

Internally, the tower arch is double-chamfered and pointed. The nave north arcade is three bays with double-chamfered pointed arches springing from one cylindrical pier and one octagonal pier. The south arcade is two bays with similar arches resting on an octagonal pier and octagonal responds bearing 14th-century foliage and grotesque capitals. Between these arcades is a probably early to mid-17th-century screen with decorated panelling surmounted by bulb-on-vase balusters. Further panelling with a strapwork frieze separates the Moreby Chapel, and a probably later 17th-century panelled partition with strapwork frieze divides the chapel further. The Moreby Chapel contains the effigy of Sir Robert Moreby, a cross-legged knight reputedly dating to around 1337. A marble wall monument to John Accolm (died 1611) occupies the chapel, featuring four kneeling figures facing one another in pairs within an architectural setting. The Chapel of Saint Anne contains probably mid to late 17th-century panelling with attached seats and a heavily moulded, deeply carved naturalistic frieze, incorporating probable remains of a Jacobean overmantle. Remains of Norman carving are reused in window surrounds. The arcade between the chapel and chancel is pointed and double-chamfered with dogtooth moulding, supported on an octagonal pier, though one arch is now obscured by the organ. The chancel arch is pointed and dates to the 19th century. The church retains fragments of medieval stained glass, with otherwise 19th and 20th-century glass throughout.