Church Of St Giles The Abbot

Church of St Giles the Abbot, Farnborough

This church survives from the medieval period with substantial alterations and additions spanning several centuries. The nave is possibly of 12th-century origin, the chancel of 13th-century origin, and a north chapel was added in the 14th century. The west tower is of uncertain date. The nave and possibly the tower were rebuilt or heavily restored around 1640. The west tower was extensively repaired in 1838 by Mr Blackshaw, who also added the southwest vestry. The chancel was largely or entirely rebuilt in 1886 to designs by Joseph Clarke. A northwest vestry was added in 1903. The tower was repaired and reroofed in 1951.

The church is constructed of flint rubble with 17th and 19th-century brick dressings.

The plan comprises a chancel with a north organ chamber, a nave with a north chapel, and a west tower with northwest and southwest vestries.

Exterior

The chancel was largely rebuilt in 1886 and has two lancet windows on the north and three on the south, with an additional lancet in the north organ chamber, partly based on the arrangement of the 13th-century chancel. The triplet of lancets in the chancel east wall are of the late 19th century. The nave was partly or wholly rebuilt around 1640 and has two-light windows with plain, square heads and a central mullion. Those in the north wall are 17th-century with brick dressings and a brick mullion; those on the south were rebuilt in 1895. Heavy buttresses of 17th-century brick stand on the south side, and the shallow plinth on both sides has a brick edging. The small north chapel has a two-light 15th-century north window with cusped lights. The west tower is of uncertain date, but may also have been rebuilt in the 17th century. Blocked openings with red brick dressings are visible above the vestry roofs on either side and in the second stage. Substantial stock brick buttresses on the west side were added in 1838, when the south vestry was also added. The tiled pyramidal cap roof dates to 1951, replacing an early 19th-century plain parapet with pinnacles. The west door was rebuilt in the early 20th century. The early 20th-century polygonal north vestry has Tudor-style brick windows; the south vestry is of the early 19th century.

Interior

The interior is plastered and painted. The 19th-century chancel arch is in 13th-century style and has small roll mouldings dying into the wall on both faces. The chancel east windows have roll mouldings, Purbeck marble shafts between the lights, and 13th-century capitals on the sides. The opening to the northeast organ chamber is formed by curved braces to the wall plate for the chancel roof. The 19th-century opening to the north chapel is supported on a straight iron beam resting on short, flat, corbelled responds. The west gallery is 17th-century in origin and has a panelled front on slender, square columns. An organ loft of 1960 contains an attractive organ case. The nave roof has king posts with curved braces to the main beams and is of mid-17th-century date, reusing much older timber.

Principal Fixtures

A late 14th-century font is polygonal with quatrefoils and rosettes on the bowl and tracery panelling on the 19th-century stem, with traces of original colour. Nave benches with doors date to 1854–5. Choir stalls and an altar rail date to 1935. A two-light north aisle window by William Morris dates to around 1860; the remainder of the glass is 20th-century. A large wall tablet commemorates Thomas Brome, died 1673, signed by Jasper Latham. At the west end is a tablet for Dr Thomas Young, died 1829, a pioneering scholar of Egyptian hieroglyphics. A bronze wall plaque of Christ and the Apostles in an Epstein-influenced style by Elise March (1883–1974) was created for Mrs Kelly in 1939. An early 19th-century benefaction board records gifts of George Dalton from 1566.

History

Farnborough church was in existence by 1070, when it was listed as a chapel of Chelsfield, remaining a chapel of Chelsfield until the late 19th century when an independent parish was created. The present church was probably built in the 12th century with the chancel added or extended in the 13th century and the north chapel added in the 14th century. The roof and parts of the walls were destroyed in a storm in 1639. The nave roof was rebuilt in its present form, reusing older materials, apparently from a late medieval hammer beam roof. The tower may also have been built or rebuilt at this time, with the chancel arch and east window remodelled. The 17th-century east window consisted of three lights with uncusped, segmental heads and had a high transom, with dressings apparently of rendered brick and a rere-arch with a straight head supported on corbelled brackets, possibly formed from 13th-century capitals. The deep rebates on the sides of the former east window jambs suggest that the 13th-century east window had outer jamb shafts. The former chancel arch, possibly also 17th-century, was a plain, wide opening with a canted shape following the form of the chancel roof.

The tower had a spire, damaged by lightning in 1728 but still in existence in the late 18th century. In 1838, the tower was again struck by lightning and was subsequently extensively restored and rebuilt by Mr Blackshaw, who added the west buttresses and the south vestry, blocking older openings in the process. The opening into the north chapel was rebuilt in 1886 to designs by Joseph Clarke and replaced a low arch of uncertain, presumably medieval date. He also rebuilt the chancel and replaced the 17th-century east window. The northwest vestry was added in 1903. The tower was reroofed in 1951 following a fire in 1949.