Helstrup church/ Helstrup kirke, Middelsom herred, Viborg amt.

Helstrup church, ab. 8 km west of Randers.

Helstrup parish, Middelsom herred, Viborg amt.


The small church in Helstrup without a tower lies surrounded by old boulder dikes upon a bank with a steep fall to south and west. The original sections are the Romanesque choir and nave in granite ashlars upon a bevelled plinth, and the bottom section of a late medieval western tower and a newer porch at the north side. From original details are kept a bricked-up circular window in the choir gable, a small untouched Romanesque window in the north side of the choir and a now bricked-up window in the north side of the nave. In the south wall of the choir is the vague trace of a socalled leprosy window, now partly covered by a large 1600s tombstone. All traces of the south door have disappeared, while the north door - with insertions of round sticks and bevelled consoles below a granite lintel - is still in use. A west tower from late Middle Ages, built in granite ashlars at the bottom and bricks it the top -  was later, before 1768, broken down till the height of the nave. The wallwork is partly renewed with small stones, the year in iron anchers shows this in the western gable: 1843 and the initials O.F. Rebuildings were made in 1875-77, possibly a reconstruction of the ashlars in the southern side wall. Inside the church, which has beamed ceilings, was the choir arch extended.

Upon a bricked communion table stands  a Neo Gothic oak frame from ab. 1840-50 and a contemporary altar painting. A Romanesque lion font with foliage. A small Netherland baptismal dish from the 1600s. Pulpit in Renaissance with carved year 1609 has Ionic columns and decorations - in the fields is inserted a star pattern. The pews, mostly from 1952, have kept two gables with the initials I.L.S. and A.P.D. and the year 1699. The bell without insctiption is in a frame upon the church yard, it is from the late Middle Ages. In a restoration in 1952 the tower room was connected to the nave in a pointed arcade.


Velbyrdig mand (Honourable man) Las Jonsen of Helstrup is mentioned in 1453 and 1455. From 1475 is mentioned Johan Pors in H. In 1482 he pawned a farm in H. to the bishop in Århus, but lived also in 1483 in H. It was probably also he, who as Pors in H. is mentioned up till 1488. In 1750 Helstrupgård was sold by Hans Adolf Høeg to manager Chr. Kollin.

In a groove between the hills and the meadow east of the road from Helstrup to the south is the sacred spring Helligvæld. 

There are no listed prehistorics in the parish but there were a stone cist, 6 hills and a grave from early Roman Iron Age, one of the hills Jabildshøj was large. In the stone cist were found an axe, a clay pot and several amber pearls.

Names from the Middle Ages: Helstrup (1216 Helfsdorp, 1453 Hælstrop).


News from Helstrup church: The church was restored in 2007, and the old altar piece was replaced by a new altar decoration made by the artist Dynes Fuglsang from Risskov, Århus.


Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962.

photo: borrowed from Google earth, 2013, gb.

Sundby church / Sundby kirke, Morsø Nørre herred, Thisted amt.

 

Sundby village

The church in Sundby on the island Mors has nave and choir  from the Romanesque period with a halfcircular apse and a newer porch to the south. A possibly late medieval tower was demolished in the 1700s. The Romanesque church is built in granite ashlars on a slant-plinth. Several ashlars are unusually large, until 2,5 meter long. The longwalls of the nave are rebuilt above the plinth in 1848 (southwall outside) and 1890 (southwall inside and the northern wall) . The Romanesque windows are kept in the apse and in the northern wall of the choir. In the western gable is a modern round-window with coloured glass. The apse has a halfcircular vault, the choir and nave a beamed ceiling. The apse was furnished as a sacristy in the Middle Ages and divided from the choir with a wall.  The porch is built in small bricks and whitewashed.

The walled communion table has a new panel. The altarpiece is an architectur-frame from 1893 with a Christ figure(after Thorvaldsen), made in kallipaste. A Romanesque sidealter-table in granite stands in the sacristy (apse). Chalice from 1656, the altarcandelabres were given by Lars Andersen 1624. A Romanesque granite font with archade-rows with human heads and other figures. A Renaissance pulpit from ab. 1610-20 ; with biblical paintings from 1669. Sounding board from 1857. Modern pews. In the nave a ship model. A bell without inscription from the 1400s, hangs in a peephole in the gable. At the church lies a Romanesque gravestone with a reliefcarved procession cross and a partly destroyed Latin majuskel-inscription: "Quisquis ades si morte .... des sta p(er) lege plora / Sum quod eris, quod es, ipse fui...s" (Whoever you are... stop, read, cry / I am what you will be, what you are, I was myself...).  

original table plate

Overgård was in 1502, 1504, 1507 and 1515 owned by væbner Peder Madsen, whose coat of arms was an arrow in the shield and a lily on the helmet. With his daughter Johanne, O. came to Johan Pors of the family Skadeland, who in 1540 and 1552 was written of O.  After this it belonged to their son Mads Pors and their son-in-law Niels Andersen Vinter (was + 1579), whose son Knud Nielsen Vinter of O. died in 1590. In 1592 is above mentioned Mads Pors said to be the heir after Knud Nielsen. However, O. is in 1568 supposed to  belong to Jytte Putbus (Podebusk), but was at that time inhabited by Anne Johansdatter Pors (the family Pors of Vrandrup), widow after Jørgen Skadeland and the mother of above mentioned Johan Pors (Skadeland).
She was written of O. in 1569, and the farm must have come back to the family Pors, for in 1662 it belonged to Mads Pors' son's daughter Inger Hansdatter Pors (Skadeland), but came in 1675 to Morten Thomsen, whose son, the priest in Kobberup, Chr. Mortensen Scheel (+ 1729) in 1692 sold O. to Jens Mulli in Thisted. In 1711 and 1728 it belonged to Peder Thøgersen, and after him to Jacob Winther (+ 1761), whose widow the same year put it on auction.
Later owners: ritmester Johan Glud; Niels Aars of Ullerup, Jakob Dahlgaard, Thomas Jepsen and  Peder Smedgaard; the family Overgaard from ab. 1882. In 1924 Ingvard M. Overgaard; his widow owned O. in 1961.

Fårtoft was earlier a main farm. In 1418 the væbner Per Nielsen of Fortoft is mentioned as the owner,  in 1424-42 Anders Pedersen, in 1470 Morten Andersen, in 1483 Anders Mortensen, all probably sons following after father. The last mentioned's brother Bod Mortensen gave his share of F. to bishop Niels Friis. The parish priest in Vestervig had ownership in the farm since old times, since a certain Mikkel Ibsen in 1450 had committed to sell F. only to him, and Otte Andersen (probably a brother of Morten Andersen) conveyed in 1463-83 his part of F. to the mentioned parish priest, but also wrote himself of F.still in 1493. In 1662 Fårtoftgård belonged to mayor Jakob Madsen's heirs,  to whom it had been laid out by the estate of Vestervig kloster. It came back to the Crown, which in 1716 conveyed it to Rasmus Jørgensen in Nykøbing.

Klitgård was in 1480 and 1488 bought by the parish priest in Vestervig; in 1580 Mads Pors (from the family Skadeland) wrote himself of K., which his son's daughter Inger Hansdatter Pors in 1648 had to lay out because of debt.

Listed prehistorics: 4 hills, of which one is rather large but somewhat outdigged.

Destroyed or demolished: 34 hills; 5 were on a high site at Vilsund færgegård (ferry) At Vilsund is noted a settlement from Ertebøllekulturen.

Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s:

Sundby (1408 Swndby) ; Fårtoft (1418 Fortofft); Overgård (1502 Offuergard); Bækhøj (1664 Bechhøy); Sundbygård (1504 Swndbygord).

Source: Trap Danmark 1961.

photo June 2011: grethe bachmann