St Helen’s Church, Sefton is an active Anglican parish church located in the village of Sefton, Merseyside, England. The church, dedicated to St Helen, is the only Grade I listed building in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton and is considered the “Jewel of South West Lancashire”. It has a rich history dating back to the 12th century when a private chapel for the Molyneux family was built on the site. Over the centuries, various architectural changes were made to the church, culminating in an extensive rebuild during the reign of King Henry VIII in the 16th century. The church’s interior is renowned for its extensive carved Tudor woodwork, including seven screens forming “the magnificent centrepiece of the whole church”, wooden stalls and twenty-six rows of pews, a large 14th-century muniment chest, and a Georgian austere, dark-wood panelling. The church also contains a wealth of monuments ranging from 16th-century brasses of the Molyneux family to the Neo-classical memorial to William Blundell of 1807. Since the Victorian Gothic Revival movement of the 1830s, St Helen’s has undergone several restoration processes, with the most significant changes being the removal of the Georgian galleries and whitewashing, and the addition of a carved wooden ceiling in the nave and side aisles. Today, it is an important cultural and historical site in the United Kingdom, attracting visitors from all over the world.
Posted by Glass Angel on 2014-05-02 17:28:16