Building record M395 - CHURCH OF ST HELEN, TROWELL

Summary

CHURCH (Medieval to Late 20th Century)

Location

Grid reference Centred SK 48371 39741 (28m by 20m)
Map sheet SK43NE
District Broxtowe
Civil Parish Trowell, Broxtowe
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Type and Period (1)

Full Description

Chancel C13. Arcade C14; clerestory, W tower, and most windows Perp. Restoration of 1890 by Hodgson Fowler. Font: octagonal, C15. Stained glass: E window 1892 by Kempe. (1)

Twelve graves were excavated, together with two pits containing human remains. The interior and exterior elevation of the blocked doorway in the N wall were drawn and photographed. Both are thought to date to C14. (2)

Two potentially archaeologically significant features were observed during a watching brief in 2016. These comprised the possible remains of an early packed stone foundation, and the top of a brick lined burial vault. Unfortunately there was no scope to investigate the possible early foundation, and its possible antiquity remains uncertain. (3)

Throughout the rubble layer, a considerable number of disarticulated human remains were observed, principally comprising femora, tibiae and humeri. These suggest the likelihood of a number of earlier burials below the chancel floor, deposited prior to the practice of burials within the church being made illegal in the mid 19th century. (3)

The floor of the chancel had been subjected to a considerable amount of disturbance during the work to raise the floor in the late 19th century. This is evidenced by the significant number of disarticulated human remains that were recovered from the layer between concrete and rubble. Presumably, these originate from graves that had been situated below the chancel floor sometime before the move to make burial within the chancel floor illegal in the c.19th. (3)

Along both the North and South interior walls of the chancel, heating ducts had been installed during the raising of the floor in the late c.19th, over a period of restoration
works. These comprised a small brick culvert into which the heating pipe was laid, which were topped off with sandstone slabs. The slabs on the north side of the chancel were roughly worked and may have been robbed from earlier fabric in the chancel. Those on the south side were much more regular in appearance and could conceivably have been brought in during the c.19th restorations. (3)

Two low brick and stone walls had been constructed across the chancel from the South wall to the North wall. One ran across the upper course of brickwork of the grave vault, and the other crossed above the possible foundation. (3)

The construction of the two walls were the same, three courses of roughly workedsandstone, which was then topped by two or three brick courses. There is a possibility that the stone used in these walls were reused parts of the existing church fabric, but there is no indication of where in the church they may have come from. Their function, as part of the late c.19th restoration, would have been to support the newly raised floor. (3)


Listed buildings slides, (Photograph). SNT2648.

<1> Pevsner N, 1979, The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire 2nd ed., p 357-8 (Monograph). SNT4.

<2> JSAC, Mar 2001, Archaeological Excavation and Standing Building Recording Report St. Helen's Church, Trowell, Nottinghamshire., p 2 (Unpublished document). SNT2441.

<3> Laurence Platt and Victoria Owen, 2018, Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief at the Church of St. Helen, Trowell, Nottinghamshire (Unpublished document). SNT5881.

Sources/Archives (4)

  • --- Photograph: Listed buildings slides. .
  • <1> Monograph: Pevsner N. 1979. The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire 2nd ed.. Penguin. p 357-8.
  • <2> Unpublished document: JSAC. Mar 2001. Archaeological Excavation and Standing Building Recording Report St. Helen's Church, Trowell, Nottinghamshire.. p 2.
  • <3> Unpublished document: Laurence Platt and Victoria Owen. 2018. Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief at the Church of St. Helen, Trowell, Nottinghamshire. ,, ,,,,, ,.

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Related Events/Activities (2)

Record last edited

Jan 22 2025 4:58PM

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