Church Of St Giles

The Church of St Giles is a medieval parish church with significant post-medieval additions and 20th-century extensions. The nave and chancel date from the late 14th century, with the nave possibly built slightly earlier than the chancel. A bell turret was added or rebuilt in the 15th century. The north aisle was added by William Say around 1575–80, and the south porch dates from approximately the same period. The north vestry, originally built as a mortuary chapel around 1640–50, was probably commissioned by the Harrington family of Swakeleys. The church was restored in the 19th century when the chancel arch was rebuilt and the north arcade was either inserted or rebuilt. In 1958, architect E C Butler undertook an extensive restoration that included a western extension.

Materials and Construction

The church is built of flint rubble and brick with stone and brick dressings. Rendering covers the south side of the nave and the north and south walls of the chancel. The porch is timber-framed. The roofs are tiled, and the belfry features weatherboarding and shingles.

Plan

The church comprises a nave, chancel, a very large north aisle extending along part of the chancel, a northwest mortuary chapel (now serving as a vestry), a south porch, and a western extension. The bell turret stands over the centre of the nave.

Exterior

The 1958 extension added two bays at the west end of the nave and continued the roofline whilst leaving the bell turret and porch in their original positions. This has given the church a symmetrical appearance it did not originally possess, as the turret and porch now appear centrally placed. The rendered south nave wall shows no immediately obvious external evidence of the extension. East of the south porch is a 14th-century two-light window with a pointed head and two trefoiled lights. Another heavily restored 14th-century window stands west of the porch, with two additional 20th-century windows of similar design in the western part of the nave. Two small post-medieval dormers with wooden cusped Y-tracery occupy the eastern part of the south nave roof.

The chancel has a large late 14th-century south window and a three-light late 14th-century east window with vertical tracery. The north side of the church is dominated by the large late 16th-century north aisle. Built of brick, it features twin gables at right angles to the nave and chancel, each with an oval brick window. A brick east door has a square hood mould. Fourteenth-century windows are reset in the east and north walls of the aisle. The north mortuary chapel has heavy brick buttresses, a brick oval window (possibly reset from the west end of the aisle), and small, probably late 19th-century rectangular windows with plain lintels. The western vestry complex of 1958 is also brick, of one-and-a-half storeys with dormers and a north gable with a brick oval window echoing those of the north aisle.

The timber-framed south porch dates from the late 16th century in origin but was heavily restored and altered in 1962. The restoration included a new outer opening reusing the 14th-century former south door, new framing in the gable, and altered side openings. The dwarf brick walls on which it stands have also been renewed. The nave south doorway is 14th century and has a 20th-century door.

Interior

The interior is dominated by substantial barn-like roofs and the massive supporting structure of the bell-cot, now situated in the centre of the nave. The two-bay north arcade is in a 13th-century style with a round pier and triple-shafted responds with moulded capitals. It was built or rebuilt in the 19th century. A slot for a large diagonal brace in the north aisle bridging beam suggests that it replaced a timber arcade. At the west end of the original north wall, beneath the bell frame, is a blocked 14th-century window. A mid-20th-century door at the west end of the north nave wall leads to the 1958 western extension.

The chancel arch was also rebuilt in the 19th century in a 14th-century style with polygonal responds and moulded capitals. The late 17th-century northwest mortuary chapel (now a vestry) has a continuous series of arched recesses on its north, west, and south sides. These feature Tuscan pilasters with a continuous hood mould above. Strapwork ornament survives on the pilasters in places. The chapel ceiling is plastered, and there is an oval oculus to the north.

The chancel has a trussed rafter roof with a single tie beam, probably dating from the late 14th century. The eastern part of the nave roof is 15th century and is also of trussed rafter type with two king post trusses with curved braces. A boarded canopy of honour covers the east bay, and some probably 15th- or 16th-century chevron paintwork survives on the roof in this area. The west end of the nave has a similar roof, apparently made up from old timber in 1958. The late 16th-century north aisle roof comprises two gabled bays, each with a queen post truss and curved windbraces. The late 15th-century bell-cot is supported on a massive frame with posts, cross-beams, and curved braces, and has an internal ringing floor above the beams, now disused.

Principal Fixtures

Traces of colour survive on the east end of the nave roof, and painted foliage decoration appears in strips on the chancel south wall. A 14th-century piscina stands in the chancel, with another in the southeast corner of the nave. A medieval stoup is located in the south porch. The 14th-century south door has been reused as the outer door of the porch.

An excellent late 17th-century mahogany font has a contemporary cover with a life-sized and very realistic gilded dove. The octagonal bowl has a curved lower part with applied leaf ornament and carved floral strings. The polygonal base features gilded cherub heads, leaf ornament, and four scrolled feet. The font was used as a tea caddy at Swakeleys for a period in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A 17th-century communion table stands in the west mortuary chapel/vestry. Chancel rails, a polygonal pulpit, and other woodwork by C R Davies date from 1926–8. Late 19th-century chancel windows are in the style of Kempe; windows in the west extension from 1965 and 1971 are by Alan Younger.

Monuments

Robert Clayton, died 1665, is commemorated by a very fine veined marble swaddled infant, found in the churchyard in 1921 and now returned inside. The inscription also records the death of his mother shortly after his birth. He is also commemorated at Bletchingley in Surrey on the elaborate monument by Richard Cowtcher to his parents; his father Sir Robert was sometime Lord Mayor of London.

Several good 17th- and 18th-century wall tablets commemorate members of the Shoredicke and Harrington families. Brasses include those to Edmund Shoredicke (died 1584) and his wife, and William Say (died 1582) and his wife. There are also a number of good ledger slabs. A medieval coffin lid stands in the porch. A plaster bust of the Earl of Essex, formerly on the 17th-century screen at Swakeleys, stands in the blocked window in the nave. A memorial to Mrs Clarke (died 1816) is by John Bacon Junior, and two by Thomas Banks commemorate other Clarkes who died in 1796 and 1800.

Historical Background

A church existed in Ickenham by the early 13th century. The church, then comprising only the nave and chancel, was rebuilt in the 14th century, possibly in two phases with the nave slightly earlier than the chancel. The bell turret was added at what was then the west end of the nave in the late 15th century, when the nave roof was also rebuilt. The large north aisle was added around 1575–80 by William Say, to whom there is a brass in the church. The 16th-century north arcade may have been of timber, as a slot for a diagonal brace in the north aisle roof could have related to a post from a lost arcade.

The northwest mortuary chapel was added in the mid-17th century by the Harringtons of Swakeleys. In 1914, thirty coffins were removed from the niches in the mortuary chapel and reburied in the churchyard. Some refurnishing took place in the late 17th century, when the font was installed. The church was restored in the 19th century, and the chapel was converted into a vestry. In 1958 the west end of the nave was lengthened and a new northwest vestry complex was added. The render was removed from the chancel east wall in 1962, when the porch was also restored and glazed.