St Helen's Church 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 ...

church in the village of Churchtown in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. Historically, it was the

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, ...

Garstang Garstang is an ancient market town and civil parish within the Wyre borough of Lancashire, England. It is north of the city of Preston and the same distance south of Lancaster. In 2011, the parish had a total resident population of 4,268 ...

; today, as Garstang is split into more than one

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

, St Helen's parish is Garstang St Helen (Churchtown). It is in the

Diocese of Blackburn The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created on 12 November 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool and Burnley, the cities of Lancast ...

. It has been designated a Grade I

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 ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. St Helen's is known as the "cathedral of

The Fylde The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills t ...

History

St Helen's is situated close to the banks of the

River Wyre The River Wyre is a river in Lancashire, England, United Kingdom, which flows into the Irish Sea at Fleetwood. It is approximately 28 miles (45 km) in length. The river is a County Biological Heritage Site and has a sheltered estuary ...

. Historically, the village of Churchtown (once known as Kirkland) was part of the

, with St Helen's as the

. The oldest parts of the church date from the 13th century, these are the

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

and

respond A respond is a half-pier or half-pillar that is bonded into a wall and designed to carry the springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishi ...

s in 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 ...

, and the arch piers in the

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 ...

. The church was rebuilt in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1736, an overflow of the River Wyre flooded the churchyard and damaged the church, necessitating its restoration. In 1811 the roofs were replaced, the walls were raised and a

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

added. Further restoration work took place in 1866–1869 by

E. G. Paley Edward Graham Paley, usually known as E. G. Paley (3 September 1823 – 23 January 1895), was an English architect who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, in the second half of the 19th century. After leaving school in 1838, he went to La ...

at a cost of £1,372 (equivalent to £ in ). St Helen's is one of only two Grade I listed buildings in the Borough of Wyre and includes: * a "lepers' window" or "

squint Squinting is the action of looking at something with partially closed eyes. Squinting is most often practiced by people who suffer from refractive errors of the eye who either do not have or are not using their glasses. Squinting helps momentari ...

"; * a grave marker for the village's only victim of the

Black Plague The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

; * a large rafter, once known as the "new beam", supposedly presented to the parish by

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disag ...

at the time of 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 ...

. The circular churchyard with several yew trees point to its original use as a

Druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...

temple. It was believed by some that the area may have been the site where Christian missionaries from Ireland first set foot in Lancashire at the end of the navigational portion of the River Wyre which flows to the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

some 14 miles away.

Assessment and administration

It was designated a

Grade I 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 ...

on 17 April 1967. The Grade I designation—the highest of the three grades—is for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important". An active church in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

, St Helen's is part of the

, which is in the

Province of York The Province of York, or less formally the Northern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England and consists of 12 dioceses which cover the northern third of England and the Isle of Man. York was elevated to ...

. It is in the

archdeaconry An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

of Blackburn and the

Deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

of Garstang. In shares a

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 ...

with St Michael's Church in St Michael's on Wyre. The official name of the parish is Garstang St Helen (Churchtown). St Helen's is known as the "cathedral of

Architecture

Exterior

St Helen's is constructed in the

Perpendicular style Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...

of rubble with

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 ...

dressings. Its plan consists of a clerestoried

with

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

s to the north and south, a chapel and porch to the south, a tower to the west, and a

, which has north and south aisles and a north

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 ...

. The roofs are low-pitched. The chapel and aisles have a plain ashlar

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 ...

. The west tower has six stages. It has angled

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es on the west side and a

crenellated 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 ...

parapet. There is a

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 ...

on its north-east corner, which has a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

. The belfry louvres have

trefoil A trefoil () is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings, used in architecture and Christian symbolism, among other areas. The term is also applied to other symbols with a threefold shape. A similar shape with four rin ...

ed two-light openings with square heads. There is also a small, square window at the level of the bell-ringing chamber. The north wall of the tower has a clock.

Interior and fittings

Internally, the tower measures square. It is entered from the nave through an arch of two hollow

chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...

orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

. The nave measures by . It is separated from the north and south aisles by five-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

s, with pointed arches and round

pier image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century. A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...

s. There is a recumbent

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

in the nave to Alexander Butler (d. 1726). The

Lady chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel or a Marian chapel, an ...

south of the south aisle, endowed by Lady Rigmayden of Wedacre in 1529, is accessed through two pointed arches. It was founded by Margaret Rigmaiden (d. 1516) of Wedacre. The chapel contains a

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman ...

(basin), which has a cusped head. On the wall there is an inscription in Latin warning of "idle chatter in church". The chancel measures by . The pointed chancel arch separating the chancel from the nave is in the

Decorated style English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

; it has two orders with wave moulding. 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. The

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

in the church dates mostly from the 19th century. It includes work by

Ward and Hughes Ward and Hughes (formerly Ward and Nixon) was the name of an English company producing stained-glass windows. History Ward and Hughes was proceeded by the company Ward and Nixon, whose studio was at 67 Frith Street, Soho. They created large windo ...

William Wailes William Wailes (1808–1881) was the proprietor of one of England's largest and most prolific stained glass workshops. Life and career Wailes was born and grew up in Newcastle on Tyne, England's centre of domestic glass and bottle manufacturing. ...

and

Heaton, Butler and Bayne Heaton, Butler and Bayne were an English firm who produced stained-glass windows from 1862 to 1953. History Clement Heaton (1824–82) Fleming, John & Hugh Honour. (1977) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. '' London: Allen Lane, p. 371. ...

. The tower houses a ring of six bells hung in a wooden frame, that are rung from the ground floor. They were cast in 1828 by Thomas Mears at the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...

in London.

Churchyard

Garstang Parish Church of St Helen, Churchtown - geograph

The churchyard is mostly to the north and south sides of the church. It contains several sandstone headstones that have received a Grade II designation from English Heritage. They date mostly from the 18th century. There is a

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

that dates from 1757. South of the church there is the chamfered shaft of a sandstone cross, probably dating from the

Middle Ages 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 period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. 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.

References

;Notes ;Footnotes ;Bibliography * * * * *

External links

*
"St Helen, Churchtown" at genuki.org.uk"St Helen's - Catherdral of the Fylde, Garstang" at achurchnearyou.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Churchtown, St Helen Helen, Churchtown Church of England church buildings in Lancashire Diocese of Blackburn Grade I listed churches in Lancashire