The Church of All Saints is an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

serving the town of

Helmsley Helmsley is a market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town is located at the point where Ryedale leaves the moorland and joins the flat Vale of Pi ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. It is located between the north-west corner of the market square, and Castlegate, on the

B1257 road B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in G ...

north of

Helmsley Castle Helmsley Castle (also known anciently as ''Hamlake'') is a medieval castle situated in the market town of Helmsley, within the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire, England. History Although the estate of Helmsley was granted to Ro ...

. Dedicated to All Saints, it has been part of the Church of England since the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. It is one of four churches in the same

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

: Sproxton,

Rievaulx Rievaulx ( ) is a small village and civil parish in Rye Dale within the North York Moors National Park near Helmsley in North Yorkshire, England and is located in what was the inner court of Rievaulx Abbey, close to the River Rye. The populat ...

, and East Moors. The church was granted Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

status on 4 January 1955.

History

There has been a church in Helmsley since before the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

, and the churchyard was used as a market place in Anglo-Saxon times. Another measure of the church's antiquity is the hogback gravestone in the porch. A church was recorded in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'' in 1086. An organ by Mr. Whitehead of York was installed in 1852–53. The opening service was on 27 January 1853 when the choir of

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbis ...

were in attendance. There was much rebuilding in the 19th century, between 1866 and 1869 funded by the

Earl of Feversham Earl of Feversham is a title that has been created three times (the second time as Countess of Feversham), once in the Peerage of England, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. All three creations are ...

by the architects Banks and Barry and the contractors Barton and Smith of Helmsley, at a cost of £16,000 (). Many changes were made in the rebuilding, and Norman and later features were lost, including the font, which was replaced in 1868; the original

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

font is now in the church at

Pockley Pockley is a small village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is about 1 mile north-east of Helmsley turning north from the A170 road. Its short, winding lane passes six thatched cottages in a quarter mile ...

. However, the church gained some fine stained glass by Hardman & Co. of Birmingham. In 1931 a

Harrison & Harrison Harrison & Harrison Ltd is a British company that makes and restores pipe organs, based in Durham and established in Rochdale in 1861. It is well known for its work on instruments such as King's College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, and the R ...

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

was installed on a platform immediately west of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

. This organ replaced an existing instrument installed in 1868 by the Walker organ company. Mr Arthur Harrison retained some of the existing pipework and incorporated this in the new instrument. The Harrison & Harrison organ, which is located above and behind the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

, is used in current worship.

Architecture

In the 12th century the church was built in the

Norman style The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used fo ...

and two arches, one over the entrance doorway, the other over the chancel, remain in place. They are rounded arches in the Norman style, as opposed to the Early English in which pointed arches were used in later developments. The church has a three-stage west tower, a four-bay

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, a two-bay

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

and south porch. Its 19th-century restoration was in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style but incorporates work from the old church. It is constructed of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

with a steeply sloping stone slate roof. The tower has 13th-century

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s to its west and north faces at the second stage. Its other lancet windows, round-headed belfry windows and octagonal

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

s date from the 19th-century restoration. The south porch is entered by a round arch accessing a 12th-century doorway. Windows installed in the 19th century in the north aisle and at the west end have reticulated

tracery Tracery is an architecture, architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of Molding (decorative), moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the s ...

. The chancel has round-headed and lancet windows. Photographs reveal that the roof was altered in the restoration of 1866–69 and the church had a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

with

battlements A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

on the southern side. The north chapel is dedicated to Aelred, third

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

of the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monastery at

Rievaulx Abbey Rievaulx Abbey was a Cistercian abbey in Rievaulx, near Helmsley, in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire, England. It was one of the great abbeys in England until it was seized in 1538 under Henry VIII during the Dissoluti ...

. It contains a statue of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

, and

votive candles A votive candle or prayer candle is a small candle, typically white or beeswax yellow, intended to be burnt as a votive offering in an act of Christian prayer, especially within the Anglican, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic Christian Christian denom ...

. The south chapel is dedicated to

Columba Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...

, a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

from Ireland who brought Christianity to much of northern England. The chapel contains wall paintings of contemporary events, including depictions of Saint Oswald and a knight slaying a dragon emblazoned with the pagan gods. The church was granted Grade II*

status on 4 January 1955.

Modern usage

There is a congregation of around 70 people.

Gallery

File:All Saint's Church, Helmsley, Yorkshire.JPG , Entrance Porch and Tower File:Interior of All Saints, Helmsley, Yorkshire.JPG , Nave File:All Saints Church, Helmsley - Font - geograph.org.uk - 516846.jpg , Font File:All Saints Church 04.jpg , Chancel and sanctuary

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmsley, Church of All Saints Church of England church buildings in North Yorkshire Grade II* listed churches in North Yorkshire Church of All Saints