Church of St Helen

Details

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

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

334931

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Ryder, P F, South Yorkshire County Archaeological Monograph in Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire, Vol. 2, (1982), 35-43

End of official list entry

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