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St Helen's Church,
Church Street West / Park Lane,
Pinxton, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or had) a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in the 13th century, and we understand it is still open.

According to the British Listed Buildings website, the tower and chapel are the oldest part of the building (13th century), with the nave and chancel built 1750. Kelly's Directory of 1895 records the church as dedicated to "St Helena", describing it as having chancel, nave of three bays, south transept, a western porch and tower on the south side of the chancel, rebuilt with the materials of the old church, and containing 2 bells. In the chancel is a stone inscribed to Mary Kelsal (1674), and two memorial windows to the Coke family, erected in 1872. At that time there were 180 sittings, 150 of which were free, but "in consequence of the small state of the church, most of the services are now held in the mission room". The Mission Room (with a Sunday school) was built in 1880 "near the centre of the inhabited part of the parish" and was "licensed for the administration of holy communion, and used for Sunday and week day services".

The Mission Room and Sunday school referred to were probably in Church Street East, between its junctions with Town Street and Victoria Road. The buildings can be seen on Old Maps, for instance OS 1900 1:2,500. For details see St Helen's Church Hall, elsewhere in this database.

Inside the church also is a list of rectors, extending back to 1299. The living was in the gift of William Sacheverell Coke esq. of Brookhill Hall, Pinxton. Brookhill Hall was apparently owned by King James I, but "granted to one Middleton, and was purchased by the Coke family during his reign; several of the rooms are wainscoted with black oak, and others with tapestry. In the muniment room many ancient deeds are preserved."

By the time of Kelly's Directory of 1932, the owner of the Hall was Roger George Sacheverell Coke, his father Lt. Langton Sacheverell Coke, of the Irish Guards, being killed in action in the 1st Battle of Ypres, 31 Oct 1914. The fortunes of the church had also changed. There was a third window to the Coke family recorded, dated 1891, and 20 fewer (160) sittings, all of which were free. Curiously however there is no longer mention of the church being too small!

Pinxton is supposed by Lysons to have been the "Snodeswic" given by Wulfric Spott to Burton Abbey as an appendage to Morton, and the "Esnotrewic" of the Domesday Survey. According to local tradition it was held by Drogo, under William Peverel.

There may be more information available by by selecting one or more of the accompanying images on the right.

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church is located at OS grid reference SK4534555021. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Helen's Church, Pinxton shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Pinxton shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Pinxton, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.