Church Of St Giles

The Church of St Giles is a Grade I listed building located on Fern Road in Cropwell Bishop. It has origins dating back to the 13th century, with arcades primarily from the 14th century, and a clerestory and tower from the 15th century. The chancel was restored in 1854. The church is constructed from thinly coursed rubble, featuring quoins, ashlar buttresses, and a tower. The roofs are mostly lead, except for the tiled chancel roof.

The structure includes a west tower, a four-bay nave with lean-to north and south aisles, and a south porch, along with a three-bay chancel. The Perpendicular tower, built around 1450, has clasping and angle buttresses in three reducing stages, a three-light west window, small two-light bell-chamber openings at the top stage, a double decorative frieze, and a crenellated parapet with corner pinnacles. The aisles feature three-light west windows with intersecting tracery, and the south porch is also in the Perpendicular style, with a shallow arch and lead roof. The south aisle has two three-light square-headed windows with ogee lights and an embattled parapet, while the east window has three lights with reticulated tracery. The north aisle contains tiny lancet windows, one with a round arch, and two-light arched clerestory windows.

Inside, there are four-bay north and south arcades on short round piers, both from the 13th century, with the north side being earlier and featuring nail-head decoration. The nave roof is a Perpendicular style from the 16th century, supported by wall posts on monsters' heads. Repairs to the roof are recorded with carved initials and dates from 1600, 1785, and 1794. The south aisle roof is inscribed with "IW TP 1722 IH". In the north aisle, the east end has a section of 13th-century wall plate with nail-head decoration, and a similar timber is found in the north aisle roof. A beam in the porch is inscribed "OH ANNO DOMINI 1608 THE XXVII OF AUGUST TB".

Additional interior features include an aumbry at the east end of the south aisle, a piscina in the chancel, and an octagonal font decorated in the early 14th century, resting on a plain square base. There is a fragment of late 14th-century stained glass in the east window of the north aisle, depicting a cloaked bearded figure. The chancel contains late 14th or early 15th-century benches with poppy heads and moulded back rails. The church has five bells, dated to the 16th century, 1669, 1757, with one recast in 1905 and another new bell also from 1905.