Church of St Giles and churchyard tombs

SU 7172 NE 4/244-244A

SOUTHAMPTON STREET (east side) Church of St Giles and churchyard tombs

22.3.57.

GV II

Church of England. The small medieval church was rebuilt 1872 by J.P. St Aubyn in Early English style retaining only the C13 aisle walls and Perpendicular west tower. Ashlar steeple 1873. Flint faced with Bath stone dressings. Tiled roof. Three bay aisled nave and slight transept. Y tracery lancet windows except

i. plate tracery twin 2-light lancets in belfry. ii. 3 light Perpendicular west window. iii. Good decorated-type trancept windows. iv. Geometric east window.

Tower joins at skew and has corner and side buttresses. Pointed west door. Traces of mediaeval walling on south and west sides. Three bay chancel with flanking chapels.

Interior: rich Early English-style chancel. Norman fragments in tower (a capital possibly from the Abbey). Early C16 brass to John and Jane Bowyer. A number of good C18 memorial tablets and a good sculpted memorial to Harwood Awberry (date 1748) by Peter Scheemakers.

The graveyard retains much of its C19 atmosphere and contains a number of good tombs.

To south-west: three chest tombs, the nearest to the church corner is best: early C19 to Thomas Patrick Sourdon, tapering sides, cross gabled capping with corner antefixae. The two others are circa 1840 with fluted corners.

To north-west and east: another good group of both table and pyramidal-capped tombs. The best is to William Granger circa 1840 - similar to the Sourdon tomb (see above) with incised corner piers. Also notable (1) William Green and Woodard family vault - a late C18 chest tomb. Circa 1811, Portland stone, moulded plinth, oval panels to front and back. A number of tombs at the east end face true east (ie aligned slightly differently from the chancel).

Listing NGR: SU7164172946