St Helen's Church, Abingdon 2.92

St Helen's Church is a Church of England parish church in Abingdon on the bank of the River Thames in Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire), England. The church is thought to occupy the site of the Anglo-Saxon Helenstowe Nunnery.BuildingThe church spire is a landmark of the town. The earliest parts of the church are late 12th- or early 13th-century. Some of the windows are 14th-century and the building was remodelled in the 15th and 16th centuries. The building was restored in 1869–73 to plans by the Gothic Revival architect Henry Woodyer. Of note within the church are the painted ceiling panels of the north aisle, dating from about 1390 and representing the Tree of Jesse. The church is a Grade I listed building.Around the churchyard are three sets of almshouses: Long Alley Almshouses built in 1446, Twitty's Almshouses of 1707 and Brick Alley Almshouses of 1718. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner declared "No other churchyard anywhere has anything like it."BellsThe northeast tower has a ring of ten bells. Seven of the bells, including the tenor, were cast in 1764. The remaining three were cast in 1886. the Whitechapel Bell Foundry re-cast all ten in 2005. St Helen's has also a sanctus bell cast by Ellis I Knight of Reading, Berkshire in 1641. The church clock has a single bell cast by Henry I Bond of Burford in 1902.