St Helen's Church, Abingdon

For other places with the same name, see St Helen's Church.

St Helen's Church
Parish Church of Abingdon
View of the church and spire. View of the church and spire.
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Website	St Helen's Church
Architecture
Style	English Gothic
Administration
Diocese	Oxford

St Helen's Church is the parish church in the town of Abingdon on the banks of the River Thames in Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire), England. The church is thought to occupy the site of the Anglo-Saxon Helenstowe Nunnery.

Building

File:Stained glass in St Helen, Abingdon.jpg

A stained-glass window behind the baptismal font

The spire of the church dominates the skyline of the town. The church dates from the 13th century, with major remodelling in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was also updated in the Victorian era. Of particular note within the church are the painted ceiling panels of the north aisle, dating from about 1390 and representing the Tree of Jesse.

Within the churchyard are three sets of almshouses: Long Alley Almshouses (built 1446), Twitty's Almshouses (1707) and Brick Alley Almshouses (1718). According to the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, "No other churchyard anywhere has anything like it."

Parish

The parish of St Helen's was a large parish, which extended well beyond the town of Abingdon. It included the villages of Shippon, Dry Sandford, Radley, Kennington and Drayton, as well as Abingdon itself. In 1372 the parish of St Nicolas was carved out of the parish, so that Abingdon was divided between two ecclesiastical parishes until they were reunited in 1989. Radley (with Kennington) and Drayton, although nominally in the parish until the 19th century, were for practical purposes independent. Shippon and Dry Sandford became separate ecclesiastical parishes in 1865 and 1867 respectively.

When civil parishes were created in the 19th century, Radley and Drayton were made separate civil parishes. In 1894 St Helen's civil parish was divided. The part within Abingdon joined the civil parish of St Nicholas to form the civil parish of Abingdon, and the rest of the parish became the civil parish of St Helen Without.

JMW Turner

The spire of St Helen's appears in a painting of around 1806 by J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) called Abingdon, although the main scene depicted is believed to be a view of Dorchester, several miles away.

The William Lee Memorial Painting

A memorial tablet depicts the family tree of William Lee (1545–1637), five times mayor of Abingdon, and his descendants. The memorial is referred to in Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat:

"...and in St. Helen's Church, it is recorded that W. Lee, who died in 1637, "had in his lifetime issue from his loins two hundred lacking but three." If you work this out you will find that Mr. W. Lee's family numbered one hundred and ninety-seven. Mr. W. Lee – five times Mayor of Abingdon – was, no doubt, a benefactor to his generation, but I hope there are not many of his kind about in this overcrowded nineteenth century."

External links

• Google 360° panorama inside St Helen's parish church