Returning to Abingdon after a couple of days away we were greeted by the bells of St Helen’s Church. Tuesday is the weekly practice for the Abingdon Bell Ringers.
St. Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, is not only remembered as the name of the church, but also in the road names: East and West St Helen Street, and more recently St Helen’s Court.
The current ecclesiastical parish is called Abingdon-on-Thames, following the separation of the Parish of North Abingdon two or three years ago. In earlier times St Helen’s parish got divided into Abingdon Borough and St Helen without the borough. St Helen Without includes Dalton Barracks, Shippon and Dry Sandford.
‘St Helen Without’ is one of the best parish council names, another of my favourites is ‘Oliver’s Battery’ in Winchester.
Amusingly, the City of Durham has now got a parish council called ‘City of Durham Parish Council’, it would have been allowed to call itself Durham City Council but decided not to as it would make people think it was more powerful than it is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parish_councils_in_England#Alternative_styles
I am of course talking about civil parishes here! Contrary to the Vicar of Dibley, the parish council and the parochial church council are different things. I understand this annoys / annoyed a lot of parish councillors up and down the country