Inside The Chancel

General views of the chancel in St.Helen's church

Leaving the chancel arch and moving into the chancel itself, the windows to the north and south walls of the chancel have deep reveals of pale cream coloured dolomitic limestone, which show the immense thickness of the chancel walls. To the larger window, the reveals have developed a dirty looking patina and a close inspection shows that this is actually a Jurassic limestone similar to that used to restore other windows in the south aisle.

Permian dolomitic limestone & Jurassic oolitic limestone

Looking up at the roof, there is clear evidence of the rebuilding of the Rotherham Red sandstone walls immediately above the top of the window arches, which matches the change that can also be seen in the masonry to the exterior of the chancel. 

Rebuilding of the chancel roof during the 15th century

In places, there are remnants of the thick limewash that would have once covered the interior walling of the church, but which was not removed during the Victorian restoration and this, together with some poor quality repointing in sand and cement, obscures the details of the tool marks.

Old limewash and repointing

To the south wall, the dolomitic limestone sedilia provides another good example of figurative stone carving from the end of the 13th century, although the right hand figure is obviously a later restoration in Rotherham Red sandstone. The level of the head does not match the others and the arch just connects to the impost of the Brampton Chapel arch, with no apparent purpose. 

The sedilia

The guide suggests that there were originally 4 arches and not 3 as seen today, the missing part presumably being removed when the arch was inserted into the old chancel wall, where the organ now sits, but it is just yet another mystery of the construction history of St. Helen’s church - in Treeton.

A detail of the restored sedilia