WEST KEAL : CHURCH OF ST HELEN
Church Post Code PE23 4BJ
Closed to visitors June 2022 but open on revisit July 2024
It was late June 2020 and it was our first churchcrawl since the first three month national covid lockdown had ended. Travel was permitted and churches were now allowed to be open for personal prayer and it was getting close to the time that they would be allowed to open for public worship; as long as guidelines were met; these guidelines being strict enough that many would not be able to open again for some time.
We had planned to have a gentle meander around Rutland but a last minute change of plans saw us head in to Lincolnshire; heading off towards the coast. We started off at Folkingham before heading towards Boston, then north on towards Alford; with a page on this site covering my visit to these two churches. In between though, we stopped off at the East Lindsey villages of West and East Keal.
It was good to be out after three months of restrictions. The forecast was poor, with weather warnings for thunderstorms forecast for much of Lincolnshire on this warm and humid Saturday; with these warnings spectacularly coming to fruition later in the afternoon. We didn’t care though; it was just good to be able to get out and try to regain some sense of normality for a short time.
The church of St Helen at West Keal is a familiar landmark, set on high ground alongside the A16, with thousands passing it each year as they make their way towards the Lincolnshire coast. Skegness is 15 miles or so away to the east, with Mablethorpe some 20 miles away to the north east. Boston is 14 miles away to the south.
The population of West Keal was 342 at the time of the 2021 census, with the church of St Helen being a real statement piece built on high ground to the very north of the village, set apart from the rest of the village; which for the most part is gathered below.
A little last minute research whilst travelling stated that the church of St Botolph at Boston, the Boston Stump, could be seen from the church grounds at West Keal, a distance of some 14 miles across the flat Lincolnshire fields. Also of interest is that the tower of Boston Stump stands some 83 metres tall and the top of the tower there is level with the entrance step of the south porch at the church here!
On arrival the church of St Helen was closed on that June 2020 visit, but was open to visitors on a revisit in July 2024. Exterior shots are from the original visit with interior shots from the revisit.
There was a church mentioned at West Keal at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086 but the church that we see today dates back to the 13th century; which consists of west tower, nave with north and south aisles and clerestories, south porch, north vestry and chancel.
The church is built from greenstone rubble with limestone ashlar dressing. As we shall see later, the tower fell here in 1881 and was rebuilt between 1881 and 1884. The chancel was restored and reroofed by GE Street in 1867, with this High Victorian Gothic architect’s work also to be seen at Bristol Cathedral, York Minster and St Andrew’s Cathedral in Aberdeen. The rest of the church is medieval.
The tall three stage tower is heavily buttressed with a battlemented parapet and slender crocketed corner pinnacles, with some human heads set at the bottom. Grotesques can be seen throughout the tower, with these possibly dating to the time of the Victorian rebuilding. The church clock looks out from the south. As you would expect with the tower having been rebuilt, there is no evidence of a previous roofline from pre clerestory days.
The south porch has two large gargoyles set in to its west and east walls. With the grotesques on the tower appearing to be more recent in date, the thought did cross my mind that these may have been reset and might have previously been on the tower before its collapse.
The east wall of the porch is delightfully patched with red brick, as is the south aisle, which is heavily buttressed. The nave is long, with the clerestory consisting of five widely spaced windows. The east window of the chancel is a stepped triple lancet, each having a trefoil head.
Today there is a ring of six bells, but when Thomas North’s study of the church bells in Lincolnshire was published there were five in the ring with four being cast by Henry Harrison of Barrow in Humber, Lincolnshire in 1772 with the other cast by Thomas Osborn of Downham Market, Norfolk in 1790. The sixth was added by Taylor of Loughborough in 1885.
North notes that the tower here fell on Sunday 18th September 1881, with at the time of his notes going off to the printers the bells still being buried in the rubble of the collapsed tower; with their condition not being known. An addendum from early January 1882 noted that word had come through from the vicar of the day that the bells were ‘uninjured’.
The visitor enters in through the medieval south porch; the roof of which is vaulted, with the vaults ending in carvings of angels carrying shields. The south door dates from the 15th century and has carvings of heads, with most seemingly in distress, in the inner order. Turning around and looking out across the church grounds to the south, we have what must be one of the more impressive views from a church porch anywhere! I would imagine that this is incredibly cold and exposed during the winter months!
Entering in to the nave, it was bright and welcoming inside, with the lack of stained glass here helping in that respect, with there being just a small memorial window on the south wall of the chancel. There are 14th century five bay arcades to north and south with octagonal piers and capitals. The church organ can be found at the east end of the south aisle and occupies the most easterly bay. The chancel arch and the tower arch are each Victorian rebuilds.
The church here has a fine collection of carved capitals, on both north and south sides, but with the finest quality to be found to the north. In his study of Lincolnshire churches, John Betjeman described them as ‘where dragons fight and pigs are chained and women almost burst out of their bodices’. A bearded human figure, with a few remaining teeth to be fair, gazes out across the nave through sightless eyes. Close by a beast catches a bird whilst a disgruntled looking pig pulls at its chain. And yes, I can see where Betjeman is coming from, with a woman looking down the Nave with all of the buttons open at the top of her bodice! Perhaps we have the warnings from Proverbs, especially Proverbs 7, carved for all to take note of!
Moving in to the restored Victorian chancel the altar is plain and simple with two candlesticks, some flowers and a Bible; the cross resting on the reredos behind. A double sedilia, the seating for the priests during the mass is in its traditional position against the south wall, with a piscina alongside to the east, in which the holy vessels used in the mass would be washed. An aumbry, in which the holy vessels would be stored, is against the north wall of the chancel.
There is some graffiti here, with one crude carving depicting what appeared to be a figure of an angel with wings hanging down. Nearby, a person with illegible Christian name carved the letter ‘N’ in their surname Stone the wrong way around. The word ‘mydear’ is beautifully carved and has the initials MA underneath which may or may not be connected.
A selection of stone heads of various styles and ages can be seen. The hymn board still had the numbers on it from the previous service. I am assuming that they are using Hymns Ancient and Modern; if yes they started with ‘Christ the Lord is Risen Again’ followed by ‘Lord When Thy Kingdom Comes Remember Me’.
This is a very fine church and it was really good to see inside it at last. We moved on, a short distance off to the east, crossing the A16, to East Keal and the church there, also dedicated to St Helen.
EAST KEAL : CHURCH OF ST HELEN
Church Post Code PE23 5EF
Open to visitors
We moved on, a short distance off to the east, crossing the A16, to East Keal and the church there, also dedicated to St Helen; another small village which recorded a population of 341 at the time of the 2021 census.
The light was deteriorating and there were a few spots of light rain starting to fall. A socially distanced queue formed outside the village shop. The church of St Helen can be found off to the extreme east of the village, set back from the main road, the tower visible for those interested enough to look! Curiously, there was half a church recorded here during the Domesday Survey. I assumed that this meant that there was one church between two neighbouring villages but that does not seem to be the case here as neighbouring West Keal and Toynton All Saints each recorded at full church at that time.
The church here was open to visitors, which was a nice surprise. We had started off the day at Folkingham, where the south aisle was open and a little later in the day the church at Alford was open. For the most part though it was locked church after locked church! With my churchcrawling head on that is not a problem; the churches have stood for hundreds of years and they will still be there in a few months time. With my Christian head on though it was another matter; there was more of a need for the churches to be open at this time than at any time since the end of World War II. Christian or not; a place to sit and be at peace for a while when life and its current challenges were too much to handle!
The church here though was open and it was good to see it so; a sign on the door proudly saying that they were open to all from 10 until 4! The church that we see today dates from the 13th and 14th centuries and consists of west tower, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, south vestry and chancel.
The perpendicular west tower is of four stages and is heavily buttressed, with attractive arcade of five lancets on each side of the tower at belfry stage and west door of four orders with dogtooth decoration. The tower is relatively modern, being built during 1853 to 1854; the work of Stephen Lewin, who had an interesting career, also being a builder of steam boats and steam locomotives. The tower is ashlar with the older parts of the church built of greenstone, with rendering which is worn in places.
There are no clerestories here, which would have been useful as the light was poor with the church lights being turned on for photographing, which I wouldn’t normally do.
When Thomas North’s study of Lincolnshire church bells was published there were five bells in the ring here. The first did not carry a founder’s name but had a mark used by the Norris family of Stamford. This is dated 1670 which would attribute this to Thomas Norris. The second was dated 1633 with North not attributing this to a founder.
The third was cast by Daniel Hedderley in 1731, who at that time was operating out of Bawtry, Nottinghamshire. The fourth was cast by Henry Harrison of Barrow on Humber, Lincolnshire in 1773; the year after he cast four bells at West Keal. Perhaps from this we can surmise that the quality of those bells was very good! The fifth and final bell was cast in 1790 by Thomas Osborn in Downham Market in 1790.
North noted that the tower had collapsed with the bells undamaged and also noted that the newly built tower was struck by lightning in 1877, with the bells again undamaged.
The situation now is that there are six in the ring with three from Warner of Cripplegate, all of which are dated 1889 and one from the Whitechapel foundry dated 1955. Only the bells from Harrison (again suggesting that his work was very good) and Osborn remain uncast.
The visitor enters in through a 19th century gabled south porch, with the inner south door dating from the 14th century, with some finely carved decorations including what could be a monk with unfeasibly small head. Close by the upper half of a male figure crosses his arms, missing one hand, and smiles. Another figure is missing both legs.
There are four bay arcades to north and south, which date from the 13th century. The north arcade is of octagonal piers and capitals; the south arcade has quatrefoil piers with the capitals having a dogtooth design. The chancel arch is from the 13th century with the tall elegant tower arch from the 15th century.
With the exception of the 16th century font, which has a collection of interesting grotesque heads around the foot of the bowl, all of the fitting are Victorian. A red carpet runs the length of the nave through to the altar, which was plain and simple with just a single cross.
The east window is of three lights and has a stained glass depiction of the crucifixion. The crucified Christ is show with a red nimbus and cloth, symbolic of the blood shed for us, with droplets of blood running from hands, feet and side. Mary the mother of Jesus and John are in their traditional positions alongside the cross. Up in the tracery, angles hold shield which show some items from Christ’s passion; namely the crown of thorns and nails.
At the east end of the south aisle is a wall monument to Susanna Kirkman, which dates from the early 17th century. A human figure holds a downturned torch with elbow resting on a human skull. These are two very contrasting symbols; with the torch being downturned symbolising death and mourning. We very often see people either stepping on, leaning against or pressing down on a human skull. This is symbolic of death being beaten. To read this monument we see that the physical death of the deceased is acknowledged but we also see that the race has been won, death has been beaten and the deceased will receive their reward with their soul moving on to Heaven.
We moved on to Alford, with the sun coming out and the colours wonderful. We were pushing our luck though and the weather broke in spectacular fashion a short time later; this finishing the photography for the day. It didn’t matter though, we were able to travel; at least until the next set of restrictions kicked in, and a greater appreciation for the freedoms that we had previously taken for granted. At the time of typing this in the summer of 2024, the church at West Keal is open at weekends from 10 until 4. The church at East Keal is generally open to visitors. Each is well worth a visit. If in the area please be aware that the historic church of St Peter and St Paul, a page for which can be seen on this site, is a short distance away to the north west; and which is generally open to visitors to the best of my knowledge.