Diocese of Leicester and the Province of Canterbury. Description St Helen's Church has a maximum length of and is aligned at 25° north of east. The majority of English churches have an alignment within a few degrees of east, so this is an exceptionally large deviation from the norm. The sandstone church has a large, mainly 15th-century west tower supported by corner buttresses and topped with battlements and pinnacles. The tower has a four-light window and west doorway, and contains a spiral stairway to the bell and clock chambers and the roof. The chancel is adjoined by the former north chapel (now the vestry) on one side and the Hastings Chapel, set transept-wise on the other; it has three sedilia and a piscina on its northern wall. The nave is significantly wider than it is long, and has four bays with medieval inner north and south aisles and 19th-century outer aisles. The Hastings Chapel, chancel and clerestory are embattled, and the former north chapel is English Perpendicular, with a window of the same style. The piers in the nave were remodelled in the 15th century, and have incised panels, as do some of the arches. This feature is of an unusual style and is also seen at Sherborne Abbey in Dorset and at St Peter and St Paul, Syston, Leicestershire. The Chapel of St Michael and All Angels and the Lady Chapel are at the east end of the outer north and south aisles respectively, and contain 20 of the 28 stone heads carved by Thomas Earp of Lambeth in 1878–1880, mostly depicting biblical characters such as Salome and John the Baptist, or historical figures like St Helen and Martin Luther. Ten are paired on opposite sides of the five pillars defining the inner edge of the Lady Chapel aisle, and another ten are similarly arranged in the Chapel of St Michael and All Angels. The corbels of the north, west and south doors bear six more heads, those by the west door depicting Queen Victoria and Archbishop Tait; and Jesus and Moses are higher on the corbels of the west window. The clerestory and the wooden roofs of the nave and south inner aisle are 15th century, but the rest of the lead-clad roofing dates from the Victorian rebuilding. St Helen's Church was designated as a Grade I listed building in 1950, recognising it as a building of exceptional