Church Of St Giles

Church of St Giles

Parish church. Dating from the 12th century, with parts rebuilt and altered in the 13th century, restored in 1879 and with a vestry added in 1948. Built of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and plain tiled roofs with decorative ridge tiles. The church comprises a two-bay nave with opposing doorways, a south vestry, a west bellcote, and a two-bay chancel.

Nave

The west wall contains two 19th-century round-headed lights with chevron and nailhead mouldings on the heads. Two similarly detailed but much longer lights appear in the south elevation. The north elevation has a 12th-century round-headed light, to the west of which sits the north doorway. This doorway dates to the 12th century and features plain jambs with chamfered imposts enriched with dragonesque and foliated detail. The round arch is decorated with chevron mouldings and encloses a carved tympanum. At the centre of the tympanum is a circle containing an Agnus Dei held by the eagle of St John and the winged bull of St Luke, surrounded by an outer band carved with four beasts, a bird, and foliage.

The south vestry, added in 1948, encloses the south doorway. It is gabled with diagonal buttresses topped with offsets at the south end, and features a pair of cusped lancets at the south end and in the east side elevation.

The west bellcote was rebuilt in 1879. It is gabled, has two shallow offsets, and contains a single chamfered pointed archway for one bell of 1691 by John Martin of Worcester.

Chancel

The chancel was largely rebuilt in the 13th century. It has diagonal east end buttresses with offsets and an east window of three stepped lancets with 13th-century splays and a 19th-century head and rear arch. The north wall contains a 12th-century round-headed light and, to its west, a blocked doorway with a timber lintel, probably of 17th-century date, which may have led to a former south vestry. The south wall displays a pair of late 13th-century cusped lancets and, to their west, a low side window of around 1500 comprising one square-headed light with a 19th-century shutter.

Interior

The 13th-century chancel arch is two-centred with two continuous chamfered orders. The nave roof is late 14th-century, featuring collar and tie-beam trusses with two tiers of cusped wind braces forming cross patterns between each truss. The chancel roof has a similar central truss and moulded wall plates.

In the chancel stands a late 17th or early 18th-century altar table with turned legs, accompanied by similar balustered altar rails, and a 17th-century chair panelled with geometric design. The north wall preserves the lintel and jambs of the blocked doorway, within which is set part of an early 14th-century stone coffin lid with incised decoration. A carved timber figure corbel is attached to the south jamb of the chancel arch.

The east and side walls of the nave display 12th-century wall paintings in red pigment showing addorsed flowers on stalks against a painted masonry effect background. Two corbels flank the head of the chancel arch.

The font is fashioned from a 12th-century stone in the form of a truncated cone, hollowed out on the base and carved with a dragon, a beast, and scrolled foliage. The pulpit is 19th-century, three-sided, and a parish chest is located near the former south doorway into the vestry. This south doorway is 12th-century with a round head and plain jambs.

Memorials comprise ledger slabs in the nave and chancel, probably both early 18th-century.