Church Of St Giles

Church of St Giles

This is a parish church with construction spanning many centuries. The earliest parts date to the 12th century: the apse and tower. A thirteenth-century chancel followed, then in the fourteenth century the chancel arch and south aisle were added. The south transept was mostly built in the seventeenth century. Nineteenth-century additions include the north aisle, north transept, north vestry, and south porch. The church underwent heavy restoration in the nineteenth century. The walls are constructed of flint and pebble rubble, with some areas plastered. Repairs to the east side of the tower from the seventeenth century are of red brick. The roofs are covered with red plain tiles.

The twelfth-century apse has three round-headed windows, though the east window may be twelfth-century work that was restored in the nineteenth century. Between the apse and chancel is a semi-circular arch with plain chamfered imposts. The soffit contains five painted roundels that are relics of stencilled painting from 1566. The apse has a gablet roof and nineteenth-century bronze altar rails.

The thirteenth-century chancel has a lancet window in the north wall, below which is a slightly later low-sided window with a lancet head, rear arch, iron stanchion and bars. To the east is a blocked lancet window and a nineteenth-century doorway. The south wall contains two restored fourteenth-century windows with two trefoiled lights and quatrefoils in two-centred heads. The fourteenth-century chancel arch is two-centred with two chamfered orders; the responds have attached semi-octagonal shafts with moulded capitals and bases. Nineteenth-century painted scrollwork decorates the window splays. The sill of the eastern south wall window contains a thirteenth-century coffin lid, ribbed and carved with a cross. Above the chancel arch hangs a circa 1800 copy of Raphael's "Lo Spasimo di Scicilia". The five-cant ceiled roof is covered with a nineteenth-century star design.

The north vestry, built around 1850 at the expense of Mrs Gee, contains a seventeenth-century corner cupboard. Its doorway to the chancel has a label with face stops depicting a King and a Bishop. A two-light ogee window opens to the north wall. The west door features a Caernarvon head.

The nave has a nineteenth-century ceiled seven-cant roof. The fourteenth-century south arcade comprises three two-centred arches of two chamfered orders, with octagonal columns having moulded capitals and bases. A matching nineteenth-century north arcade mirrors this.

The south transept has a mid-fourteenth-century window of three lights under a two-centred head in its east wall. The south wall contains a nineteenth-century window with original internal splays. In the west wall is a fourteenth-century arch of two chamfered orders, broken where it abuts the arcade wall. The east wall contains a piscina with cusped ogee head and cinquefoiled drain. On the external gable wall is a stone sundial with iron gnomon, dated 1660.

Sometimes called the Deane Chapel, the south transept contains two exceptionally fine monuments. On the east wall, set in a recessed arch, is the monument to Sir John Deane, dated 1625. It shows a reclining full-sized figure clad in plate armour, the head resting on the right hand, with a muzzled bear at the feet. Above are small kneeling figures of his widow, two sons, and four daughters. On the west wall is a monument in an arched recess to Anne (Drury), wife of Sir John Deane, who died in 1633. The monument was erected by her son Sir Dru Deane in 1634. It shows an alabaster standing effigy in widow's weeds with a raised hand. At her feet is a recumbent effigy of her son dressed in plate armour and wearing a lace collar, his head resting on matting and feet on a muzzled bear. Both monuments were restored to their original colours in 1964.

The south aisle has a thirteenth-century doorway in the south wall with roll-moulded jambs and a two-centred arch with a moulded label featuring King and Bishop head stops. The west wall contains a seventeenth-century red brick window of two lights under a square head. A circa 1400 octagonal font stands here, each side carved with a quatrefoil and shield. The font was originally painted, though only traces now remain.

The north transept and north aisle were added in 1861 to balance the south transept and aisle. The north wall has two four-light windows, and the west wall has matching three-light windows. On the north-east window sill is preserved a fragment of Saxon interlaced stonework. A seventeenth-century chest stands against the east wall.

The west tower is crenellated and of two unbuttressed stages, the lower comprising two storeys. The ground storey, the western half of the upper storey, and the second stage are of twelfth-century flint rubble. The remainder is an early seventeenth-century red brick repair. The seventeenth-century tower arch is of brick. Further repairs were carried out in 1963 when part of the south-west corner fell away. The ground floor has twelfth-century windows of one light to north and south, and a nineteenth-century west window. The second storey has seventeenth-century loops to north, south, and west with twelfth-century rear splays. The bell chamber's north, south, and west walls each have a window of two pointed lights in a two-centred head, possibly thirteenth-century work that was restored. The brick east window dates to the seventeenth century and has two four-centred lights under a four-centred head.

The church contains three bells. The first was cast by John Danyell of London in 1460. The second is inscribed "Henry Pleasant made me 1700" and was made in Sudbury. The third was cast in 1923 to replace a bell cast by Thomas Gardner in 1728, with the initials T.F.M. & I.L.M. A clock on the west face was presented by Mrs Sperling in 1883.