South Scarle – St. Helena’s
Inside the church is a Norman north arcade of two restored bays. Much of the rest is Early English, including the south arcade of 3 bays.
The church is of stone, consisting of a chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled tower with pinnacles and 5 bells, two of the dated 1642. The clerestory (3 windows either side) and the nave roof, with carved bosses and angels, are Perpendicular, as is the screen. The chancel, according to the listing is 13thC, has lancet windows and a double piscina. There were eleven medieval pews but these have been removed when the nave was converted to function as a community centre.
The South Porch is 15thC.
The font is partly Early English and there is a holy water stoop, two aumbries and a medieval oak chest. There is a fine incised slab to William Meryng, dated 1510.
The church was partly restored in 1871; the tower and porch were repaired and the chancel renovated in 1898.
Graffiti within the church
Restoration seems to have removed all traces of any graffiti apart from two main areas, the Chancel arch and the South Porch.
Chancel Arch
The lower parts of the arch columns have much graffiti, some of which appears to comprise what appears to be Mediaeval writing. In one or two cases this is very clear and should be readable. On the north chancel arch there is complex graffiti with a possible chalice or helm shaped object to one side. This latter has been heavily inscribed.
Careful examination of this graffiti and drwaing out the lines inscribed has resulted in the exposure of what appears to be a human figure clad in Tudor clothing. The image before and after drawing is shown.
Various other marks, including a ladder of ‘tally marks’ are present.
Similarly on the south chancel arch there is more writing and various hard to interpret marks.
West Tower
Within the space beneath the tower are some preserved lead plates from the church roof, removed when recent replacement was taking place. There are about eleven of these, kept in frames and displayed against the south wall. All are dated and have names inscribed, presumably those of the men who were replacing the lead or working on the roof. Each name and date is inscribed within either a hand or a foot, dates ranging between 1775 and 1882. In the corner of one piece is a partially drawn Victorian steam locomotive.
South Porch
This porch is full of graffiti and much of it appears to be writing. It seems to cover the underside of the arch on the porch entrance but can be seen on column capitals and almost everywhere where suitable stone is present. There are a number of witch marks, a daisy wheel and circles and two inscriptions that look like church windows. Above one of these are the letters IHS (Iesus Hominum Salvatorum – Jesus, Saviour of Mankind) in an old style. There is also a very interesting piece of graffiti where four heavily incised parallel vertical marks have been joined with interlocking upside-down Vs. The vertical marks are known from a 15thC drawing of a witches sabbath to have been used as witchmarks but in this case we have the imposition, probably at a different, later date since the lines are nowhere near as heavily incised, of a Marian Mark linking the alternate lines. Perhaps this was thought to give the symbols extra potency.
One particularly prominent piece of writing seems to read ‘Post Horse irons??? menie a myle’ which may mean ‘Post horse irons out many a mile’ or possibly ‘Post Horse Runs many a Mile. Quite what this really means is obscure but may relate to the use of post-horses, possibly in the 16thC.
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