St. Helen's Church

St. Helen's, properly called St. Helen Stonegate, has stood on this site for a thousand years or more. Nearly two thousand years ago, the Romans built here. It reminds us of York's long history as a city.

Although the first evidence we have of St. Helen's dates only from the twelfth century, it is probably of pre-Conquest origin, ie from the first half of the eleventh century or earlier. The alignment of the church (at an angle to the adjacent streets) corresponds to the presumed alignment of the Anglo-Saxon Minster. St Helen was revered within the Anglo-Saxon church from at least the eighth century, and the destroyed church of St Helen Aldwark was certainly a pre-Conquest foundation.

Churches in pre-Conquest York seem to have been numerous. Even in the later middle ages there were still over forty in the city. These churches were generally small and apparently founded not to serve the local population, or parish, but funded by a patron as an act of religious devotion. St Helen's will have been built of wood and stood in a churchyard extending over much of what is now St. Helen's Square and probably fronting Stonegate.

Photo 756, May 2011