The Parish Church of St. Helen's dates from the 12th century and contains a 600 year old monument to Sir John de Darley, Lord of the Manor.

St Helen's is dominated by an ancient and famous yew tree estimated to be 2000 years old. Another well known feature is the stone wall sundial, erected by Rev William Wray in the 18th century to encourage his parishioners to be on time to services. He felt they spent too much time gossiping under the famous yew tree.

The Church also contains a "lepers window" which was left open so that those afflicted with leprosy could hear the service without having to go inside the church itself.

From the Derbyshire Heritage page: Darley Dale St. Helen's Church dates from the 12th century and contains monuments to Sir John de Darley who was Lord of the Manor 600 years ago. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1666 to try and boost the woollen trade. It ordered that no-on should be buried in anything other than woollen material. The following notes were written in the Darley Dale burial register: "No corpse of any person [except those who shall die of the plague] shall be buried in any shift, sheet, shroud, or anything whatsoever made or mingled with flax, hemp, silk, heir*, gold or silver, or any stuff or thing, other than is what is made of sheep's wool, only upon pain of the forfeiture of £5." Another interesting entry in the register tells that in 1704 'a man died when an earthquake came'. Celtic carvings have been built into some Christian churches. Small statues of Sheela-na-gig, goddess of creation and fertility can be seen at St. Helen's. During the restoration of the church in 1854 a fragment of a cross shaft was found. The portion was 19 inches long and 15 inches wide by 11 inches thick which suggests that the original cross was of considerable height. One wide face has a plait and ring pattern which fails any other examples of symmetry, and one of the narrow faces has a twist and ring pattern. It's now in the Western Park Museum, Sheffield. In 1635, Church Lane was known as Ghost Lane after a Scottish pedlar was murdered there. Ghost stories about murdered Scottish pedlars come from Darley Dale, Hayfield and Eyam wakes. Pedlars tended to be called Scottish only because they sold cheap Scottish Linen. *was spelt this way