Church Of St Giles

Church of St Giles, Imber

An Anglican parish church of late 13th-century origin with significant 15th-century work. The building was substantially restored in 1849 (at a cost of £630 10s, funded by the Marquess of Bath) and again in 1895 (cost £1,000).

The church is constructed of dressed limestone with flint and features a tiled roof with coped verges and cross finials. The plan comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a north porch, a chancel with north vestry, and a west tower.

The north porch is gabled with a moulded pointed doorway and hoodmould. Diagonal buttresses rise to crocketed corner pinnacles, and a cornice leads to a shallow gabled battlemented parapet. The north aisle has two-light square-headed windows with cusped lights and hoodmoulds on either side of the porch. The lean-to north vestry has a shouldered chamfered doorway and chamfered window, with a two-light cusped east window.

The chancel features a lancet window to the north, diagonal buttresses, and a three-light east window with interlaced tracery and hoodmould having king and queen mask terminals. The south side has three lancets. The south aisle has a blocked pointed moulded doorway with hoodmould, square-headed two-light windows with ogee cusping and hoodmoulds on either side, and a leaded 18th-century oculus to the right. A cornice runs to a plain stone parapet. A fine three-light Perpendicular window occupies the east end of the aisle; the west end was partly rebuilt in brick in the 18th century.

The two-stage Perpendicular tower has a heavy moulded plinth and diagonal buttresses. The west face features a moulded Tudor-arched doorway with a 19th-century door and a three-light window above with hoodmould. A string course separates this from the bell-stage, which has a single cinquefoiled light below a two-light louvred Perpendicular opening on the west face (repeated on the other three sides). A moulded string course leads to a battlemented parapet with corner pinnacles. A stair turret on the north side features chamfered arrow loops and a battlemented parapet with crocketed pinnacles.

Interior

The porch contains fixed stone benches and a heavily moulded 15th-century Tudor-arched inner doorway with a square hoodmould bearing large lozenge terminals; the left terminal has a shield, the right a quatrefoiled rosette. A cusped stoup stands to the right.

The nave has a three-bay late Medieval arch-braced collar rafter roof with two tie-beams and a runner featuring carved bosses, previously plastered. Late 13th-century three-bay north and south arcades have double chamfered pointed arches on cylindrical piers with moulded capitals; traces of red-coloured painted decoration remain on the arches and wall above. A tall moulded tower arch opens to a depressed arch doorway leading to stone newel stairs. The lean-to aisle roofs feature chamfered beams, previously plastered.

The south aisle contains a trefoil-headed piscina and a blocked doorway with a depressed arch and inverted arch over. A late 19th-century double chamfered chancel arch on short shafts leads to the chancel, which has a polychrome tiled floor and a braced rafter roof with diagonal ribs. A double chamfered arch opens to the vestry, which has a 19th-century wooden screen. The hoodmould over the east vestry window has reset king and bishop mask terminals.

An unusual painted bell-ringing mural occupies the north wall of the tower, dated 1692 on its west panel. Originally comprising seven panels and designed for a peal of five bells, it features red-painted figures on panels with gabled tops, some now partly erased.

A late Medieval wall painting of St Giles survives on the north wall of the north aisle.

Monuments and Later History

The church contains several monuments: an early 18th-century stone and slate tablet with broken pediment in the south aisle to Thomas Aycliffe; a white marble classical tablet with shaped apron to Elizabeth Ballard (died 1786); a white marble tablet in the north aisle east wall to John Wadman (died 1745) with urn and cartouche on dentilled cornice with carved scroll below; and a classical white marble tablet over the north door to Johannis Offer (died 1822), signed by Reeves of Bath.

Since Imber was evacuated by the Ministry of Defence in 1943, all fittings have been removed from the church: the font was moved to Brixton Deverill, the pulpit to Winterbourne Stoke, and the seating, bell, and two effigies to Edington. The church remains closed but reopens for services once yearly in September.