Church of St Helen

Details

TF 29 NE NORTH THORESBY CHURCH LANE

4/44 Church of St. Helen 9.9.67 II*

Parish church. C13, C14, C16, 1732, 1903 restoration. Squared limestone rubble, chalk and limestone coursed rubble with slate roofs. Western tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch. The tower of 3 stages has stepped clasping buttresses, chamfered string courses, embattled parapet having 8 crocketed pinnacles. In the south side in the middle stage is a C13 lancet. Paired pointed belfry lights with single chamfered surrounds in 4 directions. In the west wall is a C20 lancet. The north aisle is separately roofed and in coursed limestone and chalk rubble. The west window is late C13 with Y tracery. And above is a C16 embossed terracotta tile. In the north wall are 2 C14 windows with 3 lights, with mouchettes and a recut late C13 window with intersecting tracery, also a blocked doorway more clearly visible on the inside. In the east aisle wall the window matches that to the west. In the chancel east wall is a C20 window of 3 lights with cusped heads and central septofoil. The south wall of the chancel has 2 single and single paired lancets, all C13, and a planked door with brick surround, probably dating from 1732. In the blocking of the south nave arcade are set 2 tall C20 windows with cusped heads to the 3 lights. The gabled porch has a continuously moulded chamfered outer arch and a similar inner arch dying into its reveals. Above is a rectangular plaque inscribed with the initials TH in a C16 script. The reset inner doorway is late C13 with paired angle shafts to the reveals, moulded imposts and hood. Interior. Early C13 3 bay north and south arcades. The north arcade has annular piers and capitals with double chamfered arches. The south arcade, now blocked, has clustered quatrefoil keeled piers, moulded capitals, double chamfered arches. The tower and chancel arches spring from octagonal corbels and have double chamfered arches. The tower arch has a hood with ammonite stops and the chancel arch has human heads beneath the corbels. At the east end of the north aisle is set high up a C18 wreathed plaque. In the chancel north wall a single chamfered arch with octagonal corbels opens into a former north chapel. Also in the north wall is a small reset C13 capital decorated with foliage and hobnail. In the south wall is a trefoil headed C13 piscina, and high up a fragment of C12 voussoir comprising 2 fine orders of chevron moulding. Fittings are all C19 or C20 apart from a set of early C16 bench ends with initials presumably of the church wardens' families. The font is a C12 circulr tub with a short run of billet moulding in the lower band standing on a splayed octagonal base. Monuments. At the west end of the nave a fragment of a C10 gravemarker decorated with figure of 8 intertwining knots and cable moulding round the edges. To either side of the chancel arch are 2 stones recording the church's restoration in 1732. Reset in an aisle window are 3 figure panels of C15 stained glass. At the west end of the nave is a fragment of C10 grave marker with a triple pattern of double knot motifs and an outer border of cable moulding, all in low relief.

Listing NGR: TF2900098768

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

195351

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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