Until mains water was connected in the village, people in the northern part of Berrick drew their water from this brook, outside what is now the Chequers car park, leaning over a railing to scoop the water using what Moreau refers to as a "big dipper" which was kept on the bank there. He also notes that, as late as the 1960s, a resident of Berrick Littleworth could be seen crossing Back Street to draw water from a roadside brook flowing from Hillpit Spring. Helen's parish church is about east of the Chequers, well away from any houses, and at the dead end of a lane which is the surviving part of Keame's Hedge Way, an ancient track closed in the 19th century as part of the Inclosure process, which joined the east–west route along Hollandtide Bottom just north of the church. Christine Holmes, in "Benson: A Village Through its History" identifies a "straight Roman road running east from Dorchester along which the churches of Shirburn, Pyrton, Cuxham, Brightwell Baldwin, Berrick Salome and Warborough all lie". This road would have run through Hollandtide Bottom from Berrick to Brightwell. It has been suggested that, when St Helen's was built, there may have been houses grouped around the church, and that the village centre may have moved later to the junction where the track along Hollandtide Bottom meets routes to Chalgrove, Newington, Warborough, and Benson. It is uncertain when the church was first established in Berrick but the fact that it is dedicated to Saint Helen suggests that it may have been founded (or refounded) in the late eighth century when King Offa of Mercia recaptured the Benson area from Wessex. Holmes writes "St. Helen – an unusual dedication for Oxfordshire but allegedly a favourite of Offa". Apart from Berrick and Benson churches, there is only one in the county dedicated to St Helen, at Albury (near Thame). There is a view, not universally accepted, that parts of the present building, and, in particular, the font, predate the Norman conquest of England. The font has interlacing ornament of a style originating in Northumbria in the early days of English Christianity. The architectural historians, Jennifer Sherwood and Nikolaus Pevsner describe the font as Norman, while Liam Tiller comments, "It is surprising that such a high quality font should be found in such a small rural chapel", and suggests that it may have been brought to Berrick from a larger church, perhaps Chalgrove, at a later date.