St Helena's Church, Thoroton is 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 Britai ...

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, ...

Thoroton Thoroton is a small English parish in the borough of Rushcliffe, Nottinghamshire, with a population of 112. The village has conservation area status. Its Anglican parish church is a Grade I listed building. Geography Thoroton lies along the ba ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

, England. The building is Grade I listed by the

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

as of outstanding architectural interest.

Heritage

The church is medieval – fragments of the East end date back to the 11th century – although it was restored in 1868–1869 by the architect John Henry Hakewill, son of

Henry Hakewill Henry Hakewill (4 October 1771 – 13 March 1830) was an English architect. Biography Early life Henry Hakewell was a pupil of John Yenn, RA, and also studied at the Royal Academy, where in 1790 he was awarded a silver medal for a drawing of a ...

. This involved rebuilding the chancel and re-roofing and re-seating the church. The 14th-century tower has a restored corbel table with masks and four

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

s and an octagonal spire. Most of the stained glass dates from 1869. The vestry has been converted into a chapel. The plain round font there has a restored 14th-century base. The dedication (earlier to "St Helen") is to St Helena of Constantinople, mother of the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine. She was reputed to have found the

True Cross The True Cross is the cross upon which Jesus was said to have been crucified, particularly as an object of religious veneration. There are no early accounts that the apostles or early Christians preserved the physical cross themselves, althoug ...

while on a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

to the Holy Land in AD 326. In the 17th and 18th centuries the church and its parish formed a chapelry of Orston. The pre-restoration church was described architecturally by a visitor, Sir Stephen Glynne, on 12 April 1866, when it was in disrepair. The prompting for the restoration came on 27 April 1868, when it was badly damaged by lightning. The church has a Latin slate tablet in memory of Gulielmi (i. e. William) Barrett (died 1760) and a marble war-memorial tablet (1919).

Parish structure

The church is in the Cranmer Group of parishes, which also includes St Thomas's Church, Aslockton, the

Church of St Mary and All Saints, Hawksworth The Church of St Mary and All Saints, Hawksworth is the Church of England parish church in Hawksworth, Nottinghamshire. It is Grade II* listed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as a particularly significant building o ...

, St Mary's Church,

Orston Orston is an English village and civil parish in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire, 15 miles (24 km) east of Nottingham. It borders the parishes of Scarrington, Thoroton, Flawborough, Bottesford and Elton on the Hill. The population a ...

, the

Church of St John of Beverley, Scarrington The Church of St John of Beverley is a 13th-century parish church of the Church of England, in the village of Scarrington, Nottinghamshire. It has been Grade I listed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. History The med ...

, and the

Church of St John of Beverley, Whatton The Church of St John of Beverley, Whatton is a parish church in the Church of England in Whatton-in-the-Vale, Nottinghamshire, dedicated to St John of Beverley. The church is Grade II* listed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media an ...

. Thoroton has a service at 9 am (Holy Communion or Matins) on the second Sunday of the month.A Church Near Yo
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thoroton, St Helena's Church Church of England church buildings in Nottinghamshire Grade I listed churches in Nottinghamshire Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham