St Helen

Octagonal spire probably of the C15, but rebuilt in the C17 and in 1883

Main, N door to church at the base of the tower with C13 Early English doorway with shafts and stiff leaf capitals flanked by blank arches

Abutting the NE tower of the corner a late C16 classical gateway into the churchyard

To the W of the tower, a large two storied, gabled porch (the upper room perhaps a priest¿s lodging). Beyond the porch, the N wall of the outer N aisle has 3 C14 windows

The N and outer N aisles have small, chunky late C12 or early C13 buttresses in the centres of their E faces

INTERIOR: The interior of the church was heavily remodelled in the C15

From N to S: North (or Jesus) Aisle, partly late C12 or early C13 and extended or rebuilt in the C14

The Lady Chapel at the E end of the Lady Aisle was built in the mid C13 by the Guild of Our lady, remodelled and extended in the very late C14

The chapel roof is panelled and has a very fine painted scheme of c.1390 with foliage and figures depicting the Tree of Jesse with a painted inscription recording the chapel's commissioning and repair

The rest of the aisle has an early C15 roof

The central nave and chancel, with a clerestory to the nave, are C15

The inner S (St Katherine's) aisle is early C15, the outer S (or Reade) aisle 1539, the roof dated and with the initials I.A and K.A. for John and Katherine Audlett

The chancel interior was refitted in flamboyant Early English style in 1869-73 by Henry Woodyer, who inserted a new E window, sedilia, tiled floor and wooden rood screen

Pulpit of 1636, moved from the nave and cut down in 1849

Organcase of 1725 by Abraham Jordan, mayor's seal of 1706, 3 large brass chandeliers, one perhaps C16 the others 1710 and 1713

White marble font, a copy of that at Sutton Courtenay, by H P Peyman of Abingdon, shown at the Great Exhibition in 1851

Font cover dated 1634

The old font is said to be buried beneath the present font

Good monuments including brasses of the C15-C17, including at the E end of the outer N aisle, a paneled altar tomb of 1571 for John Roysse and monuments to Dr John Crossley (d. 1753, monument 1790) by J Nollekens, and to Mrs Hawkins, 1782 by J Hickey

Chancel sedilia, tiled floor and wooden rood screen of 1869-73

Glass includes several late C19 and early C20 windows by C E Kempe

The interior, previously reordered in the C18, C19 and probably the C17, was re-ordered in 2003-4, with the pews repositioned to face the centre of the church where a low platform of the altar has been introduced

The body of the church was refloored with simple grey tiles

The earliest visible fabric is the late C12 or early C13 E end of the N and outer N aisles and the early C13 tower, but there has been a church on this site for much longer

Abingdon Abbey to the E of St Helen's was founded in the C7 and refounded in the C10, and the town was an important Saxon site

It appears to have been linked to the abbey from an early date, as it paid money to the abbey's infirmary by the late C12, and the rectory was appropriated to the abbey in the mid C13