St Helen's Church, Churchtown

St Helen's Church, Churchtown
St Helen's, Churchtown

St Helen's Church, Churchtown is located in Lancashire
Location in Lancashire
Coordinates: 53°52′44″N 2°47′24″W / 53.8788°N 2.7900°W / 53.8788; -2.7900
OS grid reference SD 4816242798
Location Churchtown, Lancashire
Denomination Anglican
Architecture
Functional status Active
Heritage designation Grade I
Designated 17 April 1967 (1967-04-17)
Specifications
Height 62 feet (19 m)
Administration
Parish Garstang St Helen
Deanery Garstang
Archdeaconry Blackburn
Diocese Blackburn
Province York

St Helen's Church is an Anglican church in the village of Churchtown (Kirkland) in Lancashire, England.[nb 1] Historically, it was the parish church of Garstang; today, as Garstang is split into more than one ecclesiastical parish, St Helen's parish is Garstang St Helen (Churchtown). It is in the Diocese of Blackburn. It has been designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage. St Helen's is known as the "cathedral of the Fylde".[1]

Contents

History

Historically, the village of Churchtown was part of the ecclesiastical parish of Garstang, with St Helen's as the parish church.[2] The oldest parts of the church date from the 13th century, these are the piers and responds in the chancel, and the arch piers in the nave.[2] The church was rebuilt in the 15th and 16th centuries.[2] In 1736, an overflow of the River Wyre flooded the churchyard and damaged the church, necessitating its restoration.[2] In 1811 the roofs were replaced, the walls were raised and a clerestory added.[3] Further restoration work took place 1865–1868.[2]

Assessment and administration

St Helen's is situated close to the banks of the River Wyre.[2] It was designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage on 17 April 1967.[4] The Grade I designation—the highest of the three grades—is for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important".[5]

An active church in the Church of England, St Helen's is part of the diocese of Blackburn, which is in the Province of York. It is in the archdeaconry of Blackburn and the Deanery of Garstang. In shares a benefice with St Michael's Church in St Michael's on Wyre. The official name of the parish is Garstang St Helen (Churchtown).[6] St Helen's is known as the "cathedral of the Fylde".[1][7]

Architecture

Exterior

St Helen's is constructed in the Perpendicular style of rubble with ashlar dressings.[2][3] Its plan consists of a clerestoried nave with aisles to the north and south, a chapel and porch to the south, a tower to the west, and a chancel, which has north and south aisles and a north vestry.[2] The roofs are low-pitched.[2] The chapel and aisles have a plain ashlar parapet.[2]

The west tower has six stages.[2] It has angled buttresses on the west side and a crenellated parapet.[4] There is a turret on its north-east corner, which has a spire.[3] The belfry louvres have trefoiled two-light openings with square heads.[3] There is also a small, square window at the level of the bell-ringing chamber.[2] The north wall of the tower has a clock.[2]

Interior and fittings

Internally, the tower measures 11 feet (3.4 m) square.[2] It is entered from the nave through an arch of two hollow chamfered orders.[2] The nave measures 55 feet 6 inches (16.92 m) by 21 feet 9 inches (6.63 m).[2] It is separated from the north and south aisles by five-bay arcades, with pointed arches and round piers.[3][4] There is a recumbent effigy in the nave to Alexander Butler (d. 1726).[3] The Lady chapel south of the south aisle is accessed through two pointed arches.[4] It was founded by Margaret Rigmaiden (d. 1516) of Wedacre.[1] The chapel contains a piscina (basin), which has a cusped head.[3] On the wall there is an inscription in Latin warning of "idle chatter in church".[3]

The chancel measures 36 feet 9 inches (11.20 m) by 19 feet 3 inches (5.87 m).[2] The pointed chancel arch separating the chancel from the nave is in the Decorated style; it has two orders with wave moulding.[2][3] The vestry at the north-east corner of the building is mostly constructed of dressed stone, which contrasts with the rubble of the rest of the church.[1]

The stained glass in the church dates mostly from the 19th century. It includes work by Ward and Hughes, William Wailes and Heaton, Butler and Bayne.[3] The tower houses a ring of six bells hung in an iron frame, that are rung from the ground floor.[8] They were cast in 1828 by Thomas Mears of London.[9]

Churchyard

The east end of the church

The churchyard is mostly to the north and south sides of the church.[2] It contains several sandstone headstones that have received a Grade II designation from English Heritage. They date mostly from the 18th century.[nb 2] There is a sundial that dates from 1757.[2] South of the church there is the chamfered shaft of a sandstone cross, probably dating from the Middle Ages. North-east of the church is a stone cross. The base is from the Middle Ages but the shaft and octagonal steps were replaced in the 1930s. The whole cross and the incomplete cross shaft have also been given Grade II listings.[19][20]

See also

  • Grade I listed buildings in Lancashire
  • List of ecclesiastical works by E. G. Paley

References

Notes
  1. ^ St Helen's is in the village of Churchtown, which was formerly called Kirkland. Kirkland is also the name of the civil parish that Churchtown is part of.
  2. ^ For details of the English Heritage listings for the churchyard's headstones, see [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]
Footnotes
  1. ^ a b c d Bilsborough, p. 56
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Farrer & Brownbill (1912), pp. 291–300
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hartwell & Pevsner (2009), pp. 358–59
  4. ^ a b c d "Church of St Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1072874, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  5. ^ "Listed Buildings", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/listing/listed-buildings/, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  6. ^ "Church Details: Garstang St Helen (Churchtown)", blackburn.anglican.org (Diocese of Blackburn), http://www.blackburn.anglican.org/parish.asp?theid=96603, retrieved 4 May 2011 
  7. ^ "History of Wyre — Churchtown", wyrebc.gov.uk (Wyre Borough Council), http://www.wyrebc.gov.uk/Page.aspx?PvnID=57701&PgeID=1168&BrdCb=1-24-1157-1164-1170, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  8. ^ Cheetham (1919), pp. 46–47
  9. ^ "Garstang, Churchtown — S Helen", Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers, 28 March 2007, http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=churchtown&numPerPage=10&Submit=Go&searchAmount=%3D&searchMetric=cwt&sortBy=Place&sortDir=Asc&DoveID=GARSTANG, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  10. ^ "Group of 2 Headstones Against East Wall of Vestry of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1072877, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  11. ^ "Group of 6 Headstones Against South Wall of South Chapel of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1163703, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  12. ^ "Headstone Against East Wall of South Chapel of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1072878, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  13. ^ "Headstone East of Vestry of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1163704, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  14. ^ "Headstone North-east of Vestry of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1072879, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  15. ^ "Headstone North-east of Vestry of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1163772, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  16. ^ "Headstone North of Vestry of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1072880, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  17. ^ "Headstone North of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1361958, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  18. ^ "Group of 8 Headstones North of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1318085, retrieved 18 June 2011 
  19. ^ "Cross Shaft South of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1318124, retrieved 19 June 2011 
  20. ^ "Cross North-East of Church of St. Helen", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1072876, retrieved 19 June 2011 
Bibliography

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