Church Of St Giles

BOWES THE STREET NY 9913 (South side) 33/27 Church of St. Giles 12/1/67 II Parish church. Mid C12 nave; C13 chancel; C14 north and south transepts; c.1404 south porch. Extensively restored and north porch added in 1863 by Messrs. Hay of Liverpool. Coursed and partly-rendered sandstone rubble; graduated green slate roofs. Aisleless nave with north and south porches and transepts; chancel. All windows, except for east window are trefoil-headed lancets of 1863.

4-bay nave: fragments of low plinth; flat buttresses at west; large 3-light west window under pointed hoodmould; west bellcote with twin pointed openings; steeply-pitched roof with coped gables and shaped footstones.

Buttressed, lower and narrower 4-bay chancel: C19 priest's door to south; late C15 Perpendicular 3-light east window with panel tracery and a depressed-pointed head under hollow-chamfered hoodmould; steeply-pitched roof.

Gabled south porch: moulded pointed-arched doorway under hoodmould with eastern head stop; worn crucifixion relief in gable. Gabled north porch with pointed- arched doorway. Mid C12 doorways, within both porches, have chamfered round arches; datestone (AN:DO:) above north door. Gabled transepts each with 2 1694 lancets; 2 sculptured stones in north transept gable.

Painted and plastered interior. North transept has double-chamfered arch dying into wall and a pointed-arched piscina with fluted drain. Chancel with similar arch on moulded semicircular mid-wall corbels; pointed-arched piscina in south chancel wall has foliated cross-slab head in rear wall; round rear-arch of a blocked priest's door in north chancel wall.

Fittings and monuments: Inscribed Roman dedication stone in north transept. Large grave slab,with sword and hound,to west of north door; several other medieval grave slab fragments. 2 fonts flanking north door: C12 circular bowl with incised zig-zag on C13 stem with 4 engaged shafts; this stem probably belonged to the other font, a C13 circular bowl with 3 bands of leafwork, which now stands upon a re-cut fragment of a Roman altar. Small, possibly C17 circular bowl, with small relief of a human figure and raised geometric decoration, to east of north door. Plaque dated 1878, on south nave wall, records a sum of money raised, by the friends of Thomas Headlam to augment the living of Bowes.

(Rev. William Oliver, The Story of Bowes Church, 1944).

Listing NGR: NY9929113514