Helpringham, St Andrew - Last updated 19th APRIL 2025
Our churchwarden is Fiona Lightfoot.
Post code for Helpringham Church - NG34 0RA
Apologies but the church is still locked as work on the new roof is in progress and so there will be no services in church until further notice.
The church community cafe has now moved to the Memorial Hall (on a Tuesday 10.30am to 1pm).
SERVICES:
APOLOGIES BUT THERE WILL BE NO SERVICES AT HELPRINGHAM UNTIL IT IS SAFE TO DO SO AS WORK IS BEING CARRIED OUT ON THE CHURCH ROOF.
Services have usually been held on the 2nd & 4th Sunday's of the month at 9.30am. The second Sunday is usually Holy Communion and the 4th Sunday is Morning Praise. When work is complete on the roof a BCP (Book of Common Prayer) service is planned for the 5th Sunday at 11am
HELPRINGHAM CHURCH COMMUNITY CAFE
Every Tuesday from 10.30 to 1pm now at the Memorial Hall.
HELPING THE COMMUNITY
A massive thank you to Fiona Lightfoot our church warden who delivered over 300 parcels of food to people during the COVID pandemic and to all those who donated food. It was much appreciated by all those in need during those difficult times.
The pictures below shows the food collected for the food bank by Helpringham School through their 'Reverse' Advent Calendar where instead of opening a window and getting a choc they gave an item of food instead. We thank them for their very generous collection which will be helping those in need over the Christmas period and into the New Year. The day after Fiona collected all this food from the School, two local boys Joshua & Joseph emptied their 'Elf on the Shelf' (where money appears if they have been good!) and decided to spend it all on buying food for the food bank. Which was absolutely amazing. That was so generous of you lads, your parents must be very proud of you, you are local heroes. Very well done everyone. God bless you for your kindness to others.
Food collected from school + Joshua & Joseph with their offering too.
HISTORY OF ST ANDREWS CHURCH HELPRINGHAM
Helpringham St Andrew's Church History
Helpringham. It is a big village on the edge of the Fens, with red-tiled and slate-roofed cottages scattered on the edge of the fields, lining the broad highway, and gathered round the chestnuts on the green. At the heart of it is the medieval church of St Andrew, one of a splendid company for which the Kesteven area is famed.
The chancel, with its triplet east window and lovely trefoil-headed sedilia and piscina, comes from the closing years of the 13th-century. But the rest is younger-the tower, nave and aisles 14th-century, the clerestory and spire 15th. The west front is a splendid sight. The great buttresses of the tower climb to bold pinnacles which are linked by flying buttresses to the lofty crocketed spire. High pitched roofs of the aisles flank the steeple on either side, and fine windows and a lovely recessed doorway with four depths of moulding all add to the richness of architectural design.
The interior is also impressive, the tower opening to the nave and aisles with three great pointed arches, and the nave having four more arches on each side, resting on clustered columns and adorned with six little heads, a bishop and a king among them; higher still, the light streams in through eight clerestory windows. Both aisles have Aumbries and Piscinas (one of them graceful with trefoil-headed canopy and small heads of a man and a woman), and the 13th-century font is enriched with lancet arcading, nail head, and a rough carving of the Holy Lamb. In a turret at a corner of the nave is the stairway which led to the rood loft. There ia wonderful Passion Chapel Altar with a Triptic by AE Lemmon from the arts & crafts movement.
Old woodwork adds to the charm of this place. There are plain, workmanlike benches of the 16th-century in the nave, a simple oak pulpit a century younger, a 15th-century screen with seven traceried arches, and a chest with iron bands. Modern symbolical figures of Faith, Hope and Charity shine in the east window of the chancel, and the east window of the south aisle has an attractive picture of the Annunciation. Many of the windows are by Midlands artist & craftsman A E Lemmon (1889-1963), one of the unsung masters of stained glass from the early 1900’s. The distinctive windows have local scenes within them and were commissioned by a local farming family.
