ST. HELEN’S CHURCH, Berwickshire.
The ruins of this church stand in a lonely and lofty situation overlooking the sea, about three miles eastward from Cockburnspath. The fabric is now in a greater state of dilapidation than is shown by the annexed views, which are copied from a sketch by James Drummond, R.S.A., engraved in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.[176] It is accompanied by a description and plan by Mr. Thomas S. Muir, from which it would appear that about the middle of this century the east gable wall, which was then entire, was taken down, the stones being used for agricultural purposes, and that most of what is shown of the chancel arch shared a similar fate. The dimensions can still be ascertained from the ruins.
The church ([Fig. 280]) was a Norman structure, with the exception of the west gable wall, and consisted of a nave about 30 feet 9 inches long by 18 feet wide, and a chancel 15 feet 2 inches long by 11 feet 6½ inches wide. The total internal length was thus about 48 feet 11 inches. The building was barrel vaulted throughout. The apertures where the north and south walls of the nave are shown broken down (see [Fig. 280.]) probably indicate the position of a north and south doorway. There were two windows
Fig. 280.—St. Helen’s Church. Plan.
in the south wall, with three shallow arched recesses beneath. ([Fig. 281.]) These recesses measure 11 inches deep by about 3 feet high, and have not been fitted with doors. Their purpose is unknown. The chancel arch, when entire, measured about 7 feet in width. The stone shown in
Fig. 281.—St. Helen’s Church. View looking East.
the foreground of [Fig. 281] gives an idea of the section of the jambs of the arch, only part of which now remains. A broad band connected with the caps runs along the north and south walls of the nave. The band is decorated with a circular rosette ornament. As will be seen from this view, the arch was flanked on each side by a square recessed opening, similar in position to those at the chancel arch at Tynninghame, but the recesses at the latter are arched. Beneath each of these there is a small opening, as shown on view, about 6 inches square, which goes into the wall for about two feet, but the place is now too ruinous to permit of the matter being further investigated.
The north wall of the chancel is almost entire, and has had no opening. The south wall is nearly all gone, and, as already stated, nothing remains of the east wall. The narrow east window, with its wide internal splay, appears to have been set in a recess, and enriched round the arch and down the jambs with a single chevron ornament.
Fig. 282.—St. Helen’s Church. West Gable Wall.
The west gable wall ([Fig. 282]) has been rebuilt in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. It is without opening of any kind, save the numerous putlog holes used for the masons’ scaffolding when erecting the building.
This was the church of Aldcamus, incorporated before the year 1750 in the parish of Cockburnspath. The manor of Aldcamus was granted by King Edgar (1098-1107) to Durham, and “thenceforth belonged to the monastery of Coldingham, as a cell of Durham.”[177] How long after this date the church was built we do not know; but as Chalmers remarks in a footnote that it was the manor, not the church, which Edgar granted to Durham, it may be doubted whether the church then existed. It appears to have fallen into ruin about the time of its annexation to Cockburnspath.