St Helen, Abbotsham
St Helen, Abbotsham
St Helen’s is a Grade II* parish church at the centre of Abbotsham, near Bideford in north Devon, in the Diocese of Exeter and the Torridge Coastal Mission Community.
- Location
- Abbotsham, Devon
- Country
- England
- County
- Devon
- City / town
- Abbotsham
- Address
- Abbotsham, Devon, EX39 5BR
- Postcode
- EX39 5BR
- Built
- Early C13 nave and chancel; tower c.1300; restored 1870
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Helen
- Diocese
- Exeter
- Parish
- Abbotsham
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Early English; cruciform
- Materials
- Coursed slatestone rubble with ashlar dressings; gabled slate roof
- Grid reference
- SS 424 264
- Opening hours
- The church is open from 10am to 5pm between May and October each year.
- Access
- Level access throughout
Overview
Historic England records an early thirteenth-century cruciform church with a tower of about 1300, restored in 1870: coursed slatestone rubble with ashlar dressings and a gabled slate roof. The plan is an early thirteenth-century nave and chancel, a three-stage north-east tower of about 1300 with offset corner buttresses, and an early fourteenth-century south chapel (transept). CRSBI notes further restoration in 1848 and 1870–72. The manor belonged to Tavistock Abbey at Domesday; the church was appropriated to the abbey in 1198.
The listing and Heritage Gateway highlight a twelfth-century font with a cable-moulded, fluted bowl; a fifteenth-century wagon roof with carved bosses and angels bearing shields (Giffard, Raleigh and others); and a fine set of early sixteenth-century carved bench ends with Passion emblems and Renaissance motifs. The tower occupies the position of a north transept. The village account notes six bells, one said to date from 1385.