History of St Helens

The Grade II* listed church of St. Helen, Darley is situated in the area of Churchtown, Darley Dale about a quarter of a mile from the A6. The patron saint of the church, St. Helen, lived for some time in York and was the mother of Constantine who became the first Christian Emperor of Rome.

There has been a church on the site since Saxon times and some Saxon stone coffin lids can be found in the south entrance porch. The church has elements of architecture from the Norman to the Perpendicular Gothic periods. It was restored and enlarged between 1854 and 1855 at a cost of £1,300 by Henry Isaac Stevens and was reopened on 24 April 1855. The church was restored again in 1908 by the architect Percy Heylyn Currey.

The church is cruciform in shape with a nave, chancel, transepts and aisles. Outside the chancel door different architectural styles can be seen with a blocked up Norman doorway, to the west an Early English lancet window, to the east a buttress of the Decorated period and further to the right over the chancel door is a window in Perpendicular style.

The large round stone near the chancel door is believed to be the lid of a Roman burning place and would indicate that the yew tree, estimated to be at least 2000 years old, marked a sacred site in pre Christian times.

As you enter the church on the left there is an early Norman font fitted on a new pedestal. The more modern, Jacobean Gothic font is on the north aisle.

To the right of the entrance is a stone screen enclosing the Whitworth Pew behind which is a memorial window to the famous engineer, Sir Joseph Whitworth, who lived at Stancliffe Hall and is buried in the churchyard alongside his second wife and his stepdaughter.

The screen, of late 14th or early 15th century workmanship is believed to have once closed the south transept to form a chapel as a ‘parclose screen’. Such screens of stone are rare in parish churches and would more often have been made of wood.

Between the nave and the south transept, known in the past as the Columbell Quire, is the recumbent effigy of what is believed to be Sir John de Darley who was described in a document of 1309 as Governor of Peak Castle. This effigy was originally under the south window until the south transept was formed into the Chapel of St. Chad in 1949. It is of a knight, hands holding a heart and folded in prayer with legs crossed at the knee. The south window is the work of Burne Jones and depicts scenes from the Song of Solomon. Two Early English windows on the east side of St. Chad’s Chapel depict St. Helen and St. Chad.

The colourful east window is an exact copy, made in 1864, of a 15th century window in King’s College Cambridge. The arch on the west wall is exceptionally high, reaching above the roof level of the nave, and opens into the ringing chamber.

On the north wall of the nave, above the pulpit, is a fragment of medieval wall painting, a ship which represents the Blessing of the Tribe of Zebulum. There is another fragment of painting on the west wall of the north transept.

On the north wall of the nave, above the pulpit, is a fragment of medieval wall painting, a ship which represents the Blessing of the Tribe of Zebulum. There is another fragment of painting on the west wall of the north transept.

There are two altar tomb slabs which have been inserted into the west wall near the Norman font. The larger one commemorates John and Elizabeth Rollesley who died in 1513. The smaller on is to John and Agnes Rollesley and is dated 1550.

There is one War Grave in the churchyard of Donald Standish Soppitt, a Telegraphist in the navy in the Second World War who died on November 23rd 1944 aged 19.