St Helen, Denton
St Helen, Denton
St Helen’s is a Grade II* Gothick parish church on Main Street, Denton, near Otley in North Yorkshire, in the Diocese of Leeds and the parish of Weston with Denton, one of the Washburn and Mid-Wharfe churches.
- Location
- Denton, Yorkshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Yorkshire
- City / town
- Denton
- Address
- Main Street, Denton, Yorkshire, LS29 0HH
- Postcode
- LS29 0HH
- Built
- 1776
- Architect
- John Carr, for the Ibbetson family of Denton Hall
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Helen
- Diocese
- Leeds
- Parish
- Weston with Denton
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Gothick
- Materials
- Coursed squared gritstone with grey slate roof
- Grid reference
- SE 144 489
- Opening hours
- Sorry, there are no regular opening times for this church.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England lists the church (1174421, Grade II*, 22 November 1966) as a building of 1776 by John Carr for the Ibbetson family of Denton Hall. The fabric is coursed squared gritstone with a grey slate roof: a three-bay nave and chancel with an integral west tower and a single-storey west porch, in Gothick style. The listing notes pointed windows with interlaced glazing bars, an open octagonal embattled belfry, and an east Venetian-style window with a large pointed centre light. Wikipedia records that Carr, who usually favoured a Classical manner, built the church in Gothic around a picture window taken from the chapel it replaced on the Denton Hall estate — the only complete picture window by the York glass-painter Henry Gyles — with further painted glass by William Peckitt.
The present church opened in 1776 on a site used since at least the fourteenth century as a chapel of ease in the old parish of Otley. Thomas Fairfax was born and baptised at Denton. The building is licensed for public worship but has not been consecrated. There are no regular advertised opening hours; visits are by arrangement through the benefice.