| St Helen's Church | |
|---|---|
| Church of St Helen | |
 | |
  St Helen's Church | |
| 53°37′11″N0°07′54″E / 53.619736°N 0.131785°E /53.619736; 0.131785 | |
| OS grid reference | TA 41109 15830 |
| Location | Kilnsea,Holderness,East Riding of Yorkshire |
| Country | England |
| History | |
| Founded | 1864–5 |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Redundant |
| Heritage designation | Grade II |
| Designated | 14 December 2018 |
| Architect | William Burges |
| Architectural type | Church |
The Church of St Helen,Kilnsea,Holderness,East Riding of Yorkshire, England, is a redundant parish church dating from 1864–5. It was designed by the architectWilliam Burges, and partly paid for by his fatherAlfred Burges, and is aGrade II listed building.
The hamlet of Kilnsea lies in the parish ofEasington, almost at the tip ofSpurn Head, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The hamlet has always been prone to sea erosion and the original church of St Helen fell into the sea in 1826-31.[1][a] Some thirty years later, on 22 April 1865, theYorkshire Gazette recorded; "the great liberality of Mr. A. Burgess C.E., of Blackheath, who having occasionally passed (Kilnsea) on his professional visits to Spurn Point and struck with the poverty of the place, having heard that an effort was being made for building a church, most kindly offered plans free of all expense, and gave £150 towards its completion".[3]Pevsner notes that the plans were drawn up by Alfred Burges's two sons, "one of whom was the architect William Burges".[1] The purpose of Alfred Burges's "professional visits" to Spurn Point is unclear, but his partner in the engineering firm ofMessrs. Walker and Burgess,James Walker, was Chief Engineer forTrinity House, the body with responsibility, then and now, for lighthouse construction in Great Britain.[4] In the 1850s, Trinity House funded the construction of a new lighthouse at Spurn Point, theLow Lighthouse.[5]
The total cost of the new church was £420.[1] The church was declared redundant in 1993 due to falling congregations, the last service being held on 20 June of that year.[6] It was subsequently sold, with the intention of conversion to a private house.[6]
The church is simple and small, comprising achancel,nave andbellcote.[1] It is constructed of red and yellow brick and incorporates some material from the earlier church.[1] These included the originalfont, returned from nearbySkeffling.[7] A tablet, commemorating two men from the village who were killed in theFirst World War, was removed when the church was decommissioned and is now located atAll Saints', Easington.[8] Graves of two unknown merchant seamen also killed in the war are located in the graveyard.[9]
Relatively unknown, the church is not recorded in thegazetteer of Burges's known buildings compiled by the architectural historianJ. Mordaunt Crook, and included as Appendix B in his study of Burges,William Burges and the High Victorian Dream.[10] It is noted by David Neave in his revisedPevsnerYorkshire: York and the East Riding[1] and was listed as aGrade II building on 14 December 2018.[11]
st helens kilnsea.
