St Helen's is a

redundant church A redundant church, now referred to as a closed church, is a church building that is no longer used for Christian worship. The term most frequently refers to former Anglican churches in the United Kingdom, but may also be used for disused churche ...

in the village of Skeffling,

Holderness Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the north-east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common wit ...

, in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

, England (). Dating from the mid-15th century, the church was dedicated to

St Helena Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...

. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and is under the care of the

Friends of Friendless Churches Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC) is a registered charity formed in 1957, active in England and Wales, which campaigns for and rescues redundant historic places of worship threatened by demolition, decay, or inappropriate conversion. As ...

History

The Church of St Helen dates from around

1460 Year 1460 ( MCDLX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1460th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 460th year of the 2nd millennium, the 60th year of the 15th century, and the 1st year ...

. It stands in an isolated setting in the village of Skeffling on the edge of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. It was restored in the very early 20th century, and again in 1984–85. When active, the church was within the Deanery of South Holderness within the

Diocese of York The Diocese of York is an administrative division of the Church of England, part of the Province of York. It covers the city of York, the eastern part of North Yorkshire, and most of the East Riding of Yorkshire. The diocese is headed by the ar ...

. Faced with steeply declining congregations, the church was declared redundant in 2018. In 2021 it was taken into the care of the

Architecture and description

St Helen's consists of a

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 ...

with

porch A porch (; , ) is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance to a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule (architecture), vestibule (a s ...

, a

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

and a western tower. David Neave, writing in his ''Yorkshire: York and the East Riding'' volume in the

Buildings of England The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...

series, revised and re-issued in 2005, notes the tower's "fine

Perpendicular Gothic 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-ce ...

" design. The building material is local

cobblestone Cobblestone is a natural building material based on Cobble (geology), cobble-sized stones, and is used for Road surface, pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Sett (paving), Setts, also called ''Belgian blocks'', are often referred to as " ...

. The interior contains a collection of 18th-century funerary monuments, many commemorating members of the Holme and the Bee families, who were major local landowners. The church is a Grade I

. A cross in the churchyard contemporaneous with the church has its own Grade II listing. It is topped by a

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

dating from the late 18th century.

Gallery

Restoration plaque - geograph.org.uk - 617836.jpg, Plaque commemorating the 1980s restoration South End Bank, Skeffling - geograph.org.uk - 316574.jpg, The church in its isolated, rural, setting St Helen's Church, Skeffling (Chancel).jpg, Interior

Notes

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skeffling, St Helen's Church Grade I listed churches in the East Riding of Yorkshire 15th-century church buildings in England Churches preserved by the Friends of Friendless Churches Holderness