Church Of St Giles

Church of St Giles

Church. The chapel was rebuilt in the early 18th century, with alterations made in the mid-18th and late 18th centuries, and an addition constructed in 1869. The building is constructed in ashlar gritstone and coursed sandstone, with graduated stone slate and lead roofs.

The church comprises a nave and chancel under a single roof, continuous north and south aisles, a west tower, and an added sanctuary. The south aisle was remodelled before 1742 and features an ashlar plinth and chamfered rusticated quoins. It has 7 bays of round-arched windows with a continuous impost band and Gibbs surrounds with projecting voussoirs to the arches. The arches have tripartite keystones. The windows contain 3 lights with tracery of 2 quatrefoils above. The first and last bays have inserted leaved panelled doors below the upper part of the tracery. A cornice runs above, with a pedimented sundial flanked by ball finials above the door. The aisle has a flat lead roof. The round-arched west window has a keyed architrave with Tuscan capitals.

The tower was rebuilt in the late 18th century in 3 stages. The ground floor has chamfered rusticated quoins to the west corners. The south doorway features leaved doors of 6 fielded panels below a fanlight with lobate tracery in a round-arched opening, set within a pedimented Doric doorcase. A plaque appears above, with a cornice below. The second stage has a string course, an oculus with plate tracery of 5 trefoils in a keyed architrave, and a band. The third stage has a louvred round-arched opening with a sill band, impost band, and architrave to the arch with tripartite keystone, all surmounted by a cornice. An octagon with urns at the broaches has side facets that are rusticated, and clock faces to the south and north, with a cornice. The cupola has round-arched openings with balustraded panels below a sill band, keyed architraves and impost band, and a modillion cornice. An open crown of slightly-curving ribs rises from a balustraded parapet with urn finials, topped by an urn finial at the apex. The west side of the tower has a ground-floor round-arched window with quatrefoil tracery and a continuous architrave interrupted by flush voussoirs and a tripartite keystone. The first-floor window matches those of the south side, but there is no clock on this side. The north side is similar to the west but includes a clock on the octagon.

The north aisle is constructed of coursed stone with an ashlar plinth and chamfered rusticated quoins. It has round-arched windows with quatrefoil tracery and ashlar surrounds with keyed archivolts. The western bay has a door of 6 fielded panels below an overlight in an ashlar surround with a cornice beneath the window. The two eastern bays, probably of a different build, have higher sills and transoms. The western window is shorter than the others and lacks an architrave. The aisle has a flat lead roof.

The nave has a clerestorey only to the north, with renewed ashlar and 5 chamfered straight-headed windows. The added easternmost double-bay has a depressed segmental arch. The nave has a pitched roof. The sanctuary, added in 1869, has a north oculus with plate tracery, a sleepered pitched roof with coping and a gable cross. The east window is pointed and has plate tracery, above which is a round-arched window with plate tracery set in the gable.

Interior: The original west entrance below the tower has a round-arched doorway with leaved part-glazed doors, opening into a vestibule below the western gallery. Two flanking straight flights of stairs with symmetrically-turned balusters lead upward. A pointed-arched doorway connects the vestibule to the nave, with lesser doors to the aisles. The nave has a circa 1300-style stuccoed 5-bay north arcade with quatrefoil piers, moulded capitals and pointed arches with two quadrant mouldings. An organ is positioned below the eastern segmental arch. The 18th-century 6-bay south arcade has Doric columns with lion masks on tall bases and pointed arches reaching to the roof, with a wider segmental-arched 7th bay. A pointed arch opens to the sanctuary, which has a stone reredos and an east window of 1879 by C E Kempe. The west wall, above the gallery, has an unglazed window matching those in the south side, and displays a George I Coat of Arms flanked by two large monuments.