Description

SK59SE AUSTERFIELD HIGH STREET
(east side)
10/5 Church of St. Helena
5th June 1968
- II
Church. C11, C12, C13 and C14; restored and extended 1897-8 by C. Hodgson
Fowler. Rubble and coursed, dressed magnesian limestone; red tile and
graduated slate roofs. 3-bay nave with west bellcote and north aisle,
narrower 1-bay chancel with lean-to north vestry. Nave: chamfered plinth,
west angle buttress, quoins to east. Added porch between bays 1 and 2 has
ashlar side walls and wooden posts to an exposed arch-braced gable truss;
scalloped bargeboard. Unrestored C12 south door has 2 orders of shafts with
carved capitals and tympanum with carved dragon beneath arches with beak-
heads and chevrons; hoodmould cut back. Bay 1 has a restored square-headed
window of 2 ogee lights; similar, but taller, window to bay 2. Bay 3 has
quoins on left of a C14, square-headed window of 3 ogee lights. Ashlar gable
copings; ashlar bellcote and east cross. West end has central pilaster
buttress between 2 quoined lancet windows (that on left C19); rebuilt upper
gable with bellcote having string course beneath 2 pointed-arched openings
and coped gable with cross. North aisle (of 1897) has reset C12 north door
with plain round arch; to west a reset C14 window of 2 ogee lights beneath
square head; to east are C19 3-light windows in same style; ashlar flue on
left. Chancel: lower; C14 3-light south window with cusping and square-
headed hollow-chamfered surround. East wall is of coursed dressed stone and
has reset C14 3-light window with intersecting tracery in pointed, double-
chamfered surround; east gable copings. Vestry, of 1897-8, has 2-light
mullioned window to north and 1-light east window above basement door.
Interior: well preserved C12 north arcade (encased in walling until
re-exposure in 1897); westernmost bay has semi-octagonal west respond with
crocketed capital and half-round east respond with waterleaf capital; double
chamfered arch. Wallstone pier between bays 1 and 2, the other 2 bays having
cylindrical pier and half-round responds with foliate capitals to plain round
arches; central pier has sheila-na-gig facing south west. Chancel: C12
chancel arch with half-round inner responds and shafts to west, cushion
capitals with masks, plain imposts, half-round mould continued around soffit,
roll-moulding and incised zig-zag. Pointed-arched piscina recess with square
bowl; to right of chancel south window is the chamfered right jamb of an
earlier window. Font: tapered cylindrical bowl on C19 pedestal. Jacobean
altar rail with turned balusters, carved top rail and newels with acorn
finials. Late C19 stained glass by Kempe. Said to have been built by John
de Builli c1080. North aisle built 1897 in memory of William Bradford,
baptised here in 19 March 1589; Bradford sailed in the Mayflower in 1620 and
became Governor of Plymouth Colony in 1621.
Notes on restoration in The Doncaster Review, July 1896, pp 78-79.

Listing NGR: SK6616694691

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537730

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

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)