Church Of St Giles

The Church of St. Giles is a parish church dating back to the first half of the 11th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 13th and 15th centuries. It was restored in 1879-80 by Clarke. The church is constructed of flint with stone dressings and a plain tile roof. It comprises a west tower, nave, south porch, chancel, north chapel, and north aisle.

The west tower, built in the 13th century, has two stages, broadened at the base with a moulded string and battlements. It features two-light cusped belfry openings with hoodmoulds, a blocked lancet window on the north and south faces towards the top of the lower stage, a hollow-chamfered two-light window below, and a plain-chamfered two-centred arched west doorway. The nave, dating to the first half of the 11th century, has been altered in later periods. It has a restored lancet-type window to the west of the porch, a small, double-splayed round-arched window to the right of the porch, and a tall, 2-light 15th-century window in a previously blocked opening towards the east end. The south porch, possibly from the 14th century, is timber-framed, weatherboarded on a flint plinth, and features decorative ‘durns’ forming the outer doorway and a small inner door with a two-centred arched head. It contains a couple post with a small square base and a deep stoup to the east. The chancel, likely built in the 13th century, is plinthless and narrower than the nave, with two 15th-century windows of two cinquefoiled lights with hoodmoulds and a single lancet between them. The east window is a restored 15th-century design of three cinquefoiled lights with tracery. The north chapel, also from the 13th century, retains one original lancet. The north aisle has one lancet and one 15th-century two-light window with a hoodmould, along with a 19th-century west window.

The interior features a three-bay nave arcade with pointed arches and plain, narrow chamfers. The piers are rectangular, two with roll moulding and two with plain imposts. A similar two-bay chancel arcade has plain imposts. There’s a broad 19th-century chancel arch and a lower 13th-century two-centred tower arch with a broad, plain chamfer. A blocked 4-centred arched opening exists in the west wall of the north chapel, possibly connected with a rood loft. The north chapel has a crown-post roof, probably from the 15th century. Other features include a stone font said to be from the 11th century, an aumbry in the south wall of the chancel with a shouldered head, a hollow-chamfered piscina, a window seat adjacent to the piscina, likely serving as a sedilia, and a piscina in the south wall of the north chapel. A 13th-century chest with trefoiled arcading, fragments of late 14th-century stained glass, a 17th-century communion table, and a carved hexagonal 17th-century pulpit with a backboard are also present. Two early 19th-century boards beneath the tower display the Creed and Lord’s Prayer. A fragment of a stone coffin lid is set in the base of the north wall of the north chapel, along with a tapering stone with a raised cross. A fragment of medieval screen with slender shafts and four cusped panels with ogee-moulded muntins is also recorded.