THE CHURCH OF ST. HELENS, DARLEY DALE. 1 5 



and a monster of superlative ugliness serves as the corbel in 

 the inner north-west angle of the tower, upon which the pro- 

 jection of the turret staircase rests. The summit of the tower 

 is embattled, and adorned with crocketed pinnacles at the 

 angles. 



The roof of the nave is a fair specimen of the style of 

 roof that .prevailed towards the close of the Perpendicular 

 period. It is not the same roof, or, at all events, not at the 

 same elevation, as that which covered the nave when the tower 

 was first erected (as may be seen from the weather mouldings 

 on the east front of the tower), and it cuts off a small portion 

 of the apex of the tower archway. The roof is of a low pitch, 

 formed by the curving of the large tie-beams, five in number. 

 The tie-beams have well-carved bosses in the centre, and all 

 the timbers are moulded, whilst the wall plate is embattled. 

 The braces, also, that spring from corbel stones to give addi- 

 tional support to the tie-beams, are handsomely carved. These 

 stone corbels are plainly moulded, except those at the west 

 end, which take the form of a male and female head. The 

 chancel roof was renewed in 1854, and is now of a high-pitch, 

 but the supporting corbel stones are the old ones, those on 

 the south being female heads with square head-dresses, and 

 those on the north, men's heads with curled hair and beards. 



The vestry is a narrow oblong building, lighted, as we before 

 remarked, at the east end by a small Norman window. There 

 are now two other windows in the north wall, and from the 

 west end was a communication through the wall into the pulpit. 

 But these are alterations of modern date. The old vestry used 

 to be of a larger size, and was of two stories, the lower 

 part being used as a school-room for the boys, and the upper 

 room for the girls; this use was continued till about 1820. 



Darley at the time of the Domesday Survey formed part of 

 the royal demesne. At an early period it was held under the 

 Crown by a family styled, after the manor, de Darley. The 

 first member of this family of whom we have found record 

 was Andreas de Darley, who died seized of this manor in 1249. 



