St Helen's Church Carlin How with Skinningrove
From the first donation of the land in 1899, right up till the present day, the history of St Helen's church has been intertwined with the history of the local iron and steel making industry, both at the adjoining factory and across the wider Teeside region. The architecture of St Helen's was considered highly innovative at the time as it used a "neo-byzantine basilican style" which did not become wide spread until it was used on sub-urban Roman Catholic churches in the 1920's & 1930's some two decades after St Helen's was built. St Helen's must have been well designed back then as there have been very few alterations up to the present day, the only major change being in the 1950's when a new Lady Chapel was designed and installed in oak by Thomas "Gnomeman" Whittaker who lived near Whitby. From the start of July to the end of September 2021, as well as holding regular weekly masses, the church will become the temporary home of the Skinningrove Ironworks Museaum during its refurbishment, a fitting extra use for a building which has always had such a close industrial connection.
Despite being right next door to a major iron and steel works producing many thousands of artillery shells and over eleven hundred tons of TNT, St Helen's Church survived the First World War without damage despite the countless Zepplin raids on the site! This is commemorated in a solid oak Eagle Lectern which is carved from just two pieces of locally felled oak.
"I am immensley Proud of the fact that St Helen's is an industrialist's church built to serve an industrial community right here on the Yorkshire Coast" - Father Adam Gaunt M.A (March 2021)
Many Thanks to Father Adam for his permission to place this Geocache within the Church grounds and also for his invaluable local history books written during lockdown 2021 for all of the information about St Helen's Church
St Helen's Church and the Ironstone Mining Displays will be open to the public Wednesday through Saturday 11am-3pm during July, August and September. Do come back and see us again then!
If you would like to add to the Church Micro series yourself then please look here
http://churchmicro.co.uk/
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page that can be found at
http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html