ST HELEN’S, CHURCHTOWN
In a small West Lancashire village, Barry McCann finds St Helen’s, the cathedral of the Fylde.
ONE of the prides of West Lancashire is the Anglican Church of St Helen’s, a Grade I listed building a short distance from the banks of the River Wyre in the village of Churchtown. Both church and village are fairly tucked away from the outside world, just off the A586 between Blackpool and nearby Garstang.
A carving of St Helen herself stands over the main entrance, greeting her visitors. Made in the 20th century, this carving probably replaced an earlier statue, before the Reformation frowned upon such idolatry.
Within lies a complex of nave, aisles, chancel, altar and tower with its ring of six bells. The large arches bear maxims added by the Victorians: “The Rich and Poor meet together”; “Bring Presents and come into his Courts with Praise” and “Reverence My Sanctuary” along with lines from the Profession of Faith.
Not surprisingly, St Helen’s is known locally as the cathedral of the Fylde. In its structure are examples of architecture from about every era since the Norman period, but its actual age and origin remains lost in the mists of time.
Churchtown was originally called Kirkland, the Norse “kirk” meaning church, which suggests a church already existed when the Vikings arrived and colonised the area. The oval-shaped churchyard surrounding St Helen’s is also populated by several yew trees, which also indicates the site had been a place of worship as far back as pagan times. When Christianity took hold across the
British Isles, churches were built on druid sites to ease conversion from the old religion to the new.
St Helen’s probably began life as a small, Norman-built structure, not much bigger than a chapel. It was to become the only church standing directly between Lancaster and Preston, and as such grew into the mother church for the area. An increasing congregation inevitably meant it would have to grow further.
The pillars in the north aisle date from 1180, when the Norman structure was widened, and remain the oldest surviving part of the building. There was a further expansion in 1250 when the south aisle was added.
In 1402 King Henry IV donated four great oaks “for the reparations” of the church, and these are still evident in the oak beams holding up the roof over the main aisle.
The tower was built in 1450 along with the building’s south porch which was the main entrance to the church. However, in later years, the north entrance facing the village became the main point of access and still is today.
The two dedicated side chapels arrived during the Tudor period, the first being for Roger de Brockholes who endowed a chantry chapel in
1490 dedicated to St James. This gesture was not just out of charity but also to ensure prayers would be said for his soul following his death. Today, this chancel is used as the choir vestry.
The second, completed in 1529 by the south entrance, was called the
Lady Chapel in accordance to instructions left in the will of Margaret Rigmayden of Wedacre Hall near Garstang who died in 1516 and left money for it to be built. Set two steps above the rest of the building, it originally had a Latin inscription warning the congregation about talking in church.
This was lost when the ceiling was lowered during the 17th century. The chapel is still noted though for its stained-glass window depicting St Helen and her son, Emperor Constantine the Great, and her bishop-confessor, Macarius.
The choir stalls and their misericords in the main chancel also originate from around this time, and have carvings depicting human heads and mythical beasts. These include an elephant carrying a medieval castle, a representation of the might of God. Originally around the stalls were portions of oakwork now preserved at
the east end of the north quire aisle. The stalls themselves have been restored during the intervening years and an 18th-century brass chandelier hangs in the nave, but the font and the rest of the fittings are fairly modern.
Until 1539, St Helen’s Church was under the ownership of Cockersand Abbey, a monastery on the nearby Wyre coast and home to the Premonstratensian Order. They were commonly known as the White
Canons due to their distinctive woollen habits. The Abbey was granted the advowson of St Helen’s in the late 12th or early 13th century.
When the abbeys were dissolved by King Henry VIII, most of Cockersand was dismantled and some of its stone was brought to St Helen’s to construct the vicar’s vestry in 1570. To this day the stone remains distinct from the main body of the church, thus preserving another part of the Cockersand Abbey, of which only a small hexagonal building remains.
It was also during the Reformation that one vicar, serving at St Helen’s, was said to have been shot at by a crowd gathered around the church. His crime was that he was on the “wrong side” of the Reformation. Having survived the attempt, he ordered the crowd to go home, which they obediently did.
It seems that, in those turbulent times, there was still respect for men of the cloth, even if you felt justified in taking a pot shot at them!
During the mid-1600s, St Helen’s vicarage gained an illustrious resident in Isaac Ambrose, the noted English Puritan whose religious writings, particularly Looking into Jesus (1658), have long been held in appreciation and compared to the works of his near contemporary John Bunyan. He stayed at St Helen’s before becoming vicar of Preston, and later returned to the area as Minister of Lancaster, thus covering either end of the parish.
The church continued to evolve with the changing times and it was during the Jacobean period that its nowpresent pulpit was first installed, bearing the date 1646. In keeping with the great beams, the pulpit was made out of oak and was originally constructed as a three decker. It was reduced to its present size in the 19th century and restored with new panelling, new stem and top mould.
In 1746 the River Wyre broke its banks and flooded the churchyard, damaging the building so much it was thought that demolition and an entire rebuild would be necessary. Fortunately, an inspection found the building to be structurally sound, so restoration was all that was needed.
In 1811 the walls of the nave and chancel were raised, while the rest of the building was reroofed. During 1865-8, the square pews and galleries installed in the previous century were removed, the nave reseated and roofs opened out, giving the interior its present appearance. The west tower was also apparently rebuilt around this time, with a clock on its north side facing the village.
In 1971, a piece of church history lost for centuries was uncovered. The removal of thick plaster in the side chapels revealed wall paintings from both medieval and Stuart times. The medieval picture dates from the 1400s and apparently depicts the head of a bishop. This had been covered over and replaced by the Stuart paintings from the 1650s which decoratively frame quotations from the King James Bible.
The clearest one reads thus:
“These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
Proverbs 6: 16-19.
The paintings are not the only artefacts to be found and remind visitors of St Helen’s long historic past. One lies close to the pulpit, a large stone carving from the 1200s of a person with hands together in prayer. It’s not known who this is supposed to represent, though some suggest a priest or a saint, or even a martyr, given that Lancashire remained a Catholic stronghold following the Reformation.
Today, both the church and its unspoiled village continue to attract very special visitors. In 2018, the area was used as a location for the film The More You Ignore Me starring Ella Hunt, Mark Addy and Sheridan Smith from an original screenplay by Jo Brand, who also appears. Peter Kay has also visited Churchtown complete with his camera crew.
And St Helen’s does not stop evolving. It has already operated a small onsite café for the past couple of years, and a £20,000 grant is going to see the nearby Old Coach House taken over and transformed into a new café with shop.
The Reverend Andrew Wilkinson, who has been incumbent for the past 20 years, says of St Helen’s:
“It is a church I never tire of serving as vicar. It is historic, beautiful and, to an industrial county like Lancashire, it is important and unique to the county.”
Rev. Wilkinson is no doubt looking forward to his next 20 years with this very special, very atmospheric church and its exciting future.