St Helena's Church, Thoroton is the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

of Thoroton,

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, England. The building is

Grade I listed 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 ...

by the

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for culture and sport, and some aspects of the media throughout the UK, such as broadcasting. I ...

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 ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004, by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard Aus ...

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. Early life Henry Hakewill was born on 4 October 1771 to English painter and decorator John Hakewill and Anna Maria Cook. Hakewill was a pupil of John Yenn , and ...

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

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

table with masks and four

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

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 In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

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 According to Christian tradition, the True Cross is the real instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, cross on which Jesus of Nazareth was Crucifixion of Jesus, crucified. It is related by numerous historical accounts and Christian mythology, legends ...

while on a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

to the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

in AD 326. In the 17th and 18th centuries the church and its parish formed a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

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 St. Thomas' Church, Aslockton is a late 19th-century Church of England parish church in the village of Aslockton, Nottinghamshire. The church is Grade II listed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as a building of special ...

, the Church of St Mary and All Saints, Hawksworth, St Mary's Church, Orston, the Church of St John of Beverley, Scarrington, and the Church of St John of Beverley, Whatton. Thoroton has a service at 9 am (Holy Communion or Matins) on the second Sunday of the month.A Church Near Yo
Retrieved 15 November 2020.
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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

Heritage

Parish structure

See also

References