Church Of St Giles

NEWINGTON A329 5U6096 (West side) 15/38 Church of St. Giles 18/07/63

GV I

Church. C12, c.1200, C13 and C14. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; old plain-tile roof. Nave, chancel, north transept, west tower and spire, and south porch. The 2-bay chancel retains, to north, a lancet of c.1200 and a small arched doorway, but the south wall is early C14 and has two 2-light windows with geometrical tracery. The 3-light east window is late C14 early-Perpendicular style and there is a square-headed 2-light C15 window inserted in the north wall. The south wall of the C12 nave has, to east, a rebuilt section across the former transept containing a plain 3-light C17 stone-mullioned window. Traces of former crossing piers remain. Further west is a 2-light Decorated window. The C12 south door, under a deep hood mould with lozenge decoration and containing an old plank door with the remains of crescent hinges, is sheltered by a C19 timber-framed porch. To west of it are a square-headed C15 window set in a C12 opening (visible internally) and a matching C19 window. The north wall of the nave is blind except for a late C12 doorway with an old plank door and a moulded outer arch supported on detached shafts with flat-leaf capitals. The western angles of the nave retain C12 roll mouldings. The late C13 north transept has a cusped lancet and a small 2-light window with cusped Y-tracery. The late C13 3-stage tower has a cusped lancet, to west, 2-light belfry openings with plain Y-tracery and a rendered octagonal broach spire rising from within a plain parapet. To west are 2 massive C15 buttresses. Interior: the chancel has, to south, a C15 piscina and a richly-moulded arched tomb recess of c,1300 with pierced cusping. The 7-centred coupled-rafter roof is probably C14. The black and white marble floor may be C17. The C14 chancel arch contains a simple C15 screen. The canted roofs of nave and transept are covered with C19 boarded panelling. The transept arch of c.1200, of 2 unchamfered orders, seems to represent an ambitious scheme to provide for nave aisles. Beyond the late C13 tower arch is an ancient stair with solid triangular treads. C12 tub front; plain C17 panelled pulpit. Fine early C15 glass in north window of chancel, including 2 donor figures, and fragments in 2 other windows. Memorials include an elaborate wall monument of 1650 to Walter Dunch containing 2 shrouded wreathed marble half figures framed by black marble Tuscan columns supporting a broken segmental pediment containing an armorial cartouche. A standing white-marble monument to Sir Henry Dunch (died 1686) is topped by a large urn. There are also many C18 wall tablets to the White family, and many C17 and C18 ledgers. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp.715-6).

Listing NGR: SU6087996528