St Helen

EXTERIOR Of the medieval church, only the S porch and the S nave wall remain, everything else having been rebuilt in stages in the C19.

The S nave wall has C15 windows and a simple, flint flushwork decoration.

The S porch is also C15,

has a worn image niche above the outer entrance with a C16 or C17 sundial above it.

The outer opening is set in a square frame with carved spandrels, and there are two light windows in the porch side walls.

The inner door has a medieval ring handle.

C15 S door with large, medieval ring handle.

A little C19 glass, including chancel SE by Clayton and Bell, 1872

Some C18 and C19 memorial tablets, including The Rev Richard Canning, d. 1775 and another Richard Canning, d. 1726.

HISTORY St Helen¿s is probably late C11 or early C12 in origin, and was built outside the medieval city walls.

The medieval church comprised a short, unaisled nave with a chancel, S porch and small W tower.

The tower was early C12, and early engravings show it with an embattled parapet and a small spike, the latter removed before the early C19.

The nave had large, perpendicular windows, and the chancel was apparently brick, with square-headed windows, and was probably built in the C16.

N and S transepts were added in 1837, when the medieval chancel arch was removed.

The medieval tower was repaired in 1856, and its top stage and parapet were removed in 1871.

SOURCES Tricker, R., St Helen's Church, Ipswich: Brief History and Guide Mortlock, D.P., The Guide to Suffolk Churches , 270-1 Pevsner, N and Radcliffe, E., Buildings of England: Suffolk , 291 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Helen, Ipswich, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * For it's surviving late medieval fabric. * For the evidence of subsequent phases of alteration. * For its importance as a long-established place of worship.