Description

BURGHWALLIS GRANGE LANE
SE 51 SW (south side, off)

3/67 Church of St. Helen
5.6.68
GV 1
Church. C10-Cll and C12 with C14-C16 alterations; restored 1864 and 1883.
Rubble, partly laid in herringbone fashion, red tile roofs. West tower,
3-bay nave with south porch, narrower 3-bay chancel with north vestry.
Tower: C13, 3 stages; chamfered plinth, large quoins to irregular rubble,
offsets at string courses between stages. Round-headed loops to west and
south; small circular window reset in 2nd stage on north side; belfry stage
has paired lancet openings divided by shafts; C15 top with string course and
gargoyles beneath embattled ashlar parapet with 8 crocketed pinnacles.
Nave: south side has partly exposed plinth and large quoins to herringbone
walling. Plain ashlar C14/C15 porch has pointed-arched door with hoodmould
and coped gable to ribbed ashlar roof; altered Saxon south door within has
renewed jambs and segmental head beneath round arch. To right of porch a
square-headed, 3-light Perpendicular window and a renewed lancet window.
Herringbone-work to lower part of north wall; C19 buttress built across a
small square-headed north doorway flanked by 2-light windows, both cusped and
with quatrefoils beneath pointed arches. East gable copings with apex cross.
Chancel: lower; herringbone-work on south side extended to east in large
squared stone, large quoins. Slightly-pointed priests' door flanked by
windows as north of nave; buttress to right with a shorter C19 window, in
same style, beyond; gable copings with cross. C19 gabled north vestry with
door to east and reused C15/C16 north window of 2 quinquefoiled lights.
Ashlar east end of chancel has a pointed, 3-light Perpendicular window with
chamfered surround and hoodmould.

Interior: tower arch has C12 semicircular responds to a C13 pointed arch, the
inner order chamfered. Nave: C19 roof with moulded tie beams, crown posts
and collar purlin. Chancel: semi-octagonal responds to broad, double-
chamfered pointed arch; blind arch into north vestry; stone sedilia bench
with shaped arms; pre-Reformation altar slab (reinstated 1930); C19 barrel-
vaulted roof. Fittings: Gothic Revival balcony built across tower arch;
Round font bowl (possibly C12) set on later octagonal shaft. Late medieval
rood screen, restored in 1881, is of 2 : 2 : 2 divisions with ogee arches
subdivided by pendants, vaulted canopy and cornice with carved vine trail and
cresting. Oak panelling round east end, reredos of 1885.
Monuments: numerous medieval cross slabs; in the nave a slab with brass of
knight in armour thought to be Thomas Gascoigne (d.1554), to its north a slab
to William Adam (d.1554) with rhymned inscription in old English. Slab to
south of the altar has jewelled cross with book and chalice and inscription
round rim to Richard Lyndall, rector (d.1460); to north of altar a similar
but unjewelled cross with rim inscripion to Henry Gascoigne, rector,
(d.1540). Other slabs and fragments detailed elsewhere (Ryder, pp41-43).

P. F. Ryder, Saxon churches in South Yorkshire, County Archaeology Monograph
No.2, 1982, pp35-43.

Listing NGR: SE5369612027

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Helen at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17527826

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)