Church of St Andrew, Helions Bumpstead (EHER 1613)

Parish church, 13th century and later. Plastered flint rubble with dressings of limestone and clunch. West tower, South porch and vestry of red brick roofed with handmade red clay tiles. Chancel mid 13th century, Nave possibly older but date uncertain, South arcade mid 14th century, South aisle rebuilt early 16th century and repaired in 19th century, clerestory early 16th century, West tower, South porch and vestry early 19th century. Some Roman brick has been incorporated into the fabric of the church.

Monument description derived from merging EHER 1613, 1614, 1615, and 29470. Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: The walls are plastered flint rubble with limestone and clunch dressings. The vestry, south porch and west tower are of brick. The nave is of uncertain date, is probably the oldest part of the building. The chancel was apparently rebuilt around the middle of the 13th century. The south arcade was built, and a south aisle added around the middle of the 14th century and around 1400 a west tower probably built. The clerestory was added early in the 16th century. Possibly the south aisle was destroyed and the arcade walled up at an uncertain date, but the arcade was reopened and the south aisle rebuilt early in the 16th century. The west tower was rebuilt in 1812, and the outer wall of the south aisle is largely of around 1812, but the tower arch is around 1400, the south aisle was largely rebuilt in the early 19th century, it has three windows that are apparently 16th century, much reset and restored in the 19th century, the south doorway is 16th century. Other features and fittings: windows of the mid 13th century, 15th century, early 16th century, doorway of the 16th century, roof of the two west bays of the south aisle has early 16th century timbers, an indent (much defaced), consecration cross, a late 15th century door (in part), 15th century font, a gallery, probably 15th century, late 15th century pulpit, seating-parts are late 15th century. Early in the 19th century the west tower and parts of the south aisle were rebuilt, the south porch and vestry were added, these parts of the building are all brick. In the south wall of the south aisle are 16th century windows, reset and much restored in the 19th century. Features and fittings: three 17th century bells, a late 16th century chest, 17th century monuments and floor slabs, plate includes a cup of around 1600, a stand-paten of 1699, seating is partly 17th century. <1> <2> Church is pre 13th century and later. <3> Nave is early, uncertain date, chancel is 13th century, south aisle is 14th century, a tower of this period was replaced in 1812. Much of the south aisle was rebuilt in 1812 also. A north aisle was probably intended, never begun save the clerestory. Graded BBIIb by Rodwell. Site Assessment = Has been neglected, some features have been obscured, much work needs doing, should be accompanied by archaeological monitoring. Though the churchyard "lacks notable monuments, it constitutes one of the finest ecological habitats in the county-may the cursed lawnmower never overtake it". <4> Fabric contains a little Roman brick. <4> <5> 13th century and later. Nave may be older. 15th century woodwork reused in the 19th century pulpit. West half of the tower arch has 17th century graffiti, is cut off by a 19th century wall. 18th century painted texts partly revealed above the tower arch and high on the nave walls. The church is included in a survey of historic churches in the Chelmsford diocese. Dating of the structural elements accords within. <6> A south aisle pillar is inscribed with an unusual, decorated cross, "it may be some benefactor's mark". A 'three men's Morris' board is on the south arcade pillar, a game popular in medieval times, it reached its peak in the 14th century, then gradually went out of use. It was played on the stone by masons or stone layers before setting in the pillar. Probable date around 1400, is a refined version of the game, introduced to make the game more interesting. Illustration in this source. <7> June 1995. Watching brief. In June 1995 a watching brief on the removal of turf and topsoil in a sloping cut along the northern edge of the nave and chancel exposed footings at 70cm towards the eastern end of the chancel but shallowing out to virtually nothing at the western end of the nave. The upper part of the foundations for the chancel, the large buttress and nave (to a lesser extent) were revealed. Nave and chancel foundations were mortared flint. The buttress footing was roughly shaped stone (top course) with flint below. <8> 1999. Watching brief. In 1999 plaster was removed from the bottom 6 feet of the north walls of the church, the west wall and the south wall of the south aisle. The nave wall is flint with some field rubble laid with a tendency to herringbone courses. The general character of the wall is Saxo-Norman. The north door now blocked has a surround of clunch. Between the pulpit and organ is evidence of an area made good with pegtiles(?) possibly where a monument had been removed. Behind the organ is a recess whose purpose is unclear. No evidence was seen for an entrance to the rood stair. The masonry of the west wall is made of more tightly packed stones and a brick suggests a date of 15th century suggesting it was rebuilt when the tower arch was inserted. Plaster removal from the north wall of the chancel showed the stonework to be much more tightly packed than in the nave bonded with a yellower silty mortar containing much unburnt lime. There is no evidence of blocked windows in the north wall. The chancel can be securely dated to the 13th century because of the large lancet windows in its walls. Immediately east of the chancel arch a vertical row of ashlars was evident. About 2m from the east wall was a niche, with a splay the reverse of what is normal in a window. The lintel was an oak board, almost totally rotted. At the bottom was a raised cill or lip and on balance it seems this is probably an aumbry. East of the niche is a scatter of clunch blocks in the wall. This part of the wall was probably rebuilt in the 14th or 15th century. The niche may have been blocked during the 16th or 17th century as part of the reformation. In the south aisle much of the plaster was removed showing a stone-built wall just to the east of the porch, whereupon it is brick built in the 19th century. A crack between the south and west walls suggests they are not bonded and hence of different dates. The eastern part of the south aisle has been rebuilt in brick with penny-struck pointing. The buttress in the east wall of the south aisle has Tudor brick, quoins in a hard greyish stone and pegtile bonded with a whitish lime rich mortar suggestive of a 17th -18th century date. <9> 2007. Watching brief. Monitoring of groundworks in 2007 outside of the church exposed 3 or 4 rough foundation courses of mortared stone and flint rubble below both the standing walls of the medieval church and that of the 19th century brick rebuild of the south aisle. Also, the remains of an earlier porch (?) were uncovered, the top of a brick vault and some re-deposited human remains. A range of post-medieval artefacts relating to burials were found from the trench excavation. <10> See also: <11> - <13>