Church Of St Giles

The Church of St Giles is a parish church dating to 1857-1858, designed by Robert Griffiths. It incorporates a Norman doorway and font from a former church on a different site. The church is constructed of local yellow Farlow sandstone, with tooled dressings, tile roofs, and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The building is a simple 19th-century Gothic design. The Norman doorway retains C12 elements, including chevron decoration to the arch's outer and inner curves, intersecting arcs to the label, and C19 nook shafts with block capitals. The nave has four single-light, cusped windows on both the north and south walls and a two-light west window with Y-tracery. The south porch features a pointed arch and trefoil side windows. A gabled bellcote on the west side has two cusped bell openings. The chancel has two plain lancet windows on each side and a triple stepped east window.

Inside, the nave has a five-bay arched-brace roof supported by corbels. A double-chamfered chancel arch incorporates an inner order on corbelled shafts. The chancel has a two-bay arched-brace roof, also on corbels. Walls are plastered, and the nave floor is visible as red-and-black diaper tiles, with raised wooden floors beneath the pews. The chancel floor is tiled in red and cream. Notable fixtures include a plain Norman tub font and a stone pulpit from after 1897, with marble shafts and niches containing figures including St. Giles. The pews have simple ends with moulded tops, and the choir stalls feature open trefoils on the armrests. The wooden communion rail has cast-iron uprights with scrolled brackets. The east window, designed by Swaine Bourne in 1887, depicts Christ flanked by Moses and Elijah. The west window, from 1873 by Powell’s, shows Christ with St John.

The church was built in 1857-8 to replace an earlier church. It is designated at Grade II for being a complete small church from the 1850s with limited subsequent alterations, and for retaining medieval features, specifically the Norman font and doorway arch.