Details
SK 86 SW SOUTH SCARLE HIGH STREET (east side)
5/99 Church of St.Helen
16.1.67
G.V. I
Parish church, C12, C13, C14, C15, C18 and C19. Coursed blue lias rubble
with ashlar dressings, Welsh slate and leaded roofs; west tower, nave, chancel,
south aisle, south porch, north aisle converted to Parish Room. West tower
4 stages, with battlemented ashlar parpet and 8 crocketed pinnacles; clasping
buttresses, 4 setoffs, on plinths, up to third stag. String courses at each
stage. Triple lancet on second stage, with intersecting tracery and hood
mould. Bell stage has 4 double lancets. South porch, C15, coursed rubble
with ashlar dressings, square plan, with 2 diagonal buttresses with 3 setoffs;
plinth, moulded string course, upper string course, battlemented parapet with
2 humanistic gargoyles. 4 centred arched doorway with rebate, roll and cove
mouldings; respond shafts with crenellated octagon capitals. Above, niche
containing female figure. Low pitched leaded roof with chamfered tie beams,
that to north inscribed '1704 WP. RT.ID'. South aisle C14, 3 bays, string
course, crenellated parapet, grotesque human head on south-east corner, west
window C16, triangular head, 2 four centred arched lights with cusps and panel
tracery, mask label stops. 2 south windows, C15, 4 centred arched openings
with mask, animal and owl label stops, containing triple lancets with cusped
heads. East window C14, square headed triple lancet, Decorated tracery,
restored. Parish room, formerly north aisle, C14, 3 bays, 2 C19 buttresses
in central bay. East window C14, square headed triple lancet with Decorated
tracery. 2 north windows, square headed, 2 light, rebated and chamfered reveal,
chamfered mullion, missing to west. C14 doorway with chamfered and roll moulded
surround, moulded ogee head. Nave clerestorey, alternating thick and thin
ashlar courses, string course with one gargoyle and with grotesque face on
east corners on both sides. Battlemented parapet, central merlon has Arms
in traceried panel. 3 C15 triple lancets on either face. Chancel in Early
English style, coursed rubble with graduated slate roof. 3 bays, north and
south sides have 3 tall single lancets in chamfered reveals with plain hood moulds
2 C19 lancets to east, coped gable with cross. 3 bay nave, north arcade has
2 bays of elaborate Norman work; circular piers, west and central with leaf
capitals; east pier has shallow scallop. Arches have 2 orders of coffered
diaper work on face and soffit plus zigzag, roll mould and a head in the central
spandrel. South arcade and east bay of north arcade C13,
double chamfered arches with label moulds, mask stops and rosettes. West pier
of south arcade has 4 clustered filleted shafts on square seat base and moulded
capital. Tower arch, C13, double chamfered, dogtooth band on respond
capitals. Octagonal C17 font on C14 base of 8 columns. Nave roof C15,
cambered tie beams on curved brackets on corbels, one of timber with rosette.
Quatrefoil piercing in spandrels. South aisle C15, roof with carved bosses
corbelled from arcade. Contains 10 medieval pews with lozenge finials, another
similar pew in base of tower, 2 C18 commandment boards, Charity table, several
C19 memorial tablets, C17 communion table. In south-east corner, square headed
aumbry and piscina in chamfered surround. In south-west corner, freestanding
C15 polygonal piscina. Chancel Screen, decorated style with central lancet
opening flanked by lancets containing round headed cusped lights with paoel
tracery. Much restored and altered. Chancel Arch, with roll moulding and
responds with octagonal capitals. Chancel C13 with C19 canted scissor-braced
roof. 2 lancets to east with glass 1867 and 1873. Double piscina C13 in
south-east corner, with detached central shaft, roll hood mould and mask stops
in spandrel. In north-east corner, aumbry with chamfered reveal; another
aumbry in north-west corner in former rood stair recess. 5 C19 classical
memorial tablets and incised slab to William Merying, 1510.
Listing NGR: SK8482564024
