Church Of St Giles

Church of St Giles

Anglican parish church with origins in the 13th century, substantially rebuilt and restored in the 19th century. The church comprises a west tower, nave with aisles, chancel, south porch, and north-east vestry.

Exterior

The exterior is constructed of flint and limestone in a chequered pattern, with a tiled roof featuring fishscale tiles. The gabled 19th-century porch has a moulded pointed doorway with hoodmould, a pair of quatrefoils to the sides, and a coped verge.

The south aisle contains a 2-light 16th-century cusped square-headed window with hoodmould to the left, and a 3-light window to the right of the porch. A string course runs to the parapet with saddleback coping. The nave clerestory has three 2-light 16th-century-style cusped windows, and the east end of the aisle has one cusped 16th-century-style window with hoodmould.

The chancel has a blocked hollow-chamfered south door and a 2-light square-headed window with pointed lights, plus a blocked window. The east end features three 13th-century stepped lancets with hoodmould carried over each, and a stone sundial to the left.

The north-east vestry was rebuilt in the early 20th century with a flat roof and elliptical-headed doorway. A rainwater head is dated 1861. The north aisle contains 2-light, 3-light and 1-light ogee cusped 15th-century windows with hoodmould, a 19th-century planked door to the basement, and a parapet matching the south side. The nave clerestory matches the south side. The west end has 2-light Perpendicular windows to the aisles and a 2-light 14th-century-style window to the nave.

The three-stage west tower has angle buttresses and string courses. The second stage has square-headed chamfered lights and gilded clock faces. The bell stage has 2-light cusped pointed Perpendicular windows with louvres. A heavily moulded string course with gargoyles runs to the parapet, which has pierced quatrefoils and moulded battlements with crocketed corner pinnacles.

Interior

A moulded pointed 19th-century inner doorway with planked door opens into the church. The 19th-century nave has a 3-bay arch-braced roof on corbels with carved angels and collar trusses to the half-bays. Three-bay arcades have cylindrical piers supporting moulded pointed arches with hoodmoulds featuring foliated terminals. A 19th-century double cyma-moulded tower arch spans the space.

The 19th-century pointed chancel arch rests on corbels with short Purbeck marble shafts and a hoodmould. The short chancel has a panelled wagon roof and a 19th-century 13th-century-style piscina with an inscription to Frederic de Veil Williams, died 1863. The east window contains 1860s glass.

A very fine marble tomb on the north wall commemorates Richard Grobham, died 1629. It features a barrel-vaulted ceiling, recumbent effigies of Richard and his wife Margaret, composite columns to a cornice with pinnacles and heraldic arms. The tomb was restored in 1804.

The north aisle contains a recumbent knight in an ogee crocketed recess, probably Nicholas Bonham, died 1386, and an Edith de Bonham tomb with a recumbent figure in a 19th-century arch. A pre-1707 Royal Arms hangs in the north aisle.

Furnishings include a 12th-century cylindrical font with zig-zag and scalloped pilaster ornament; 19th-century pews, pulpit and brass candelabra; and stained glass by Lavers and Barraud in the west window and north aisle dedicated to Lord Herbert of Lea. Wall tablets reset in the tower include a classical marble memorial to Ann Birch died 1808 by Osmond of Sarum, a black marble tablet to Richard Grobham died 1703, a marble tablet to Daniel Oland died 1737, and marble memorials to the Trubridge family dating from 1786 onwards. An early 18th-century manual fire engine and a good 17th-century parish chest are also housed in the north aisle.

Historical Note

The church underwent restoration in 1863–64 by the architect T.H. Wyatt.