Church Of St Giles

The Church of St Giles is an Anglican parish church dating to the late 13th century, situated in Tockenham village. It comprises a nave, chancel, and a south porch. The church is constructed of limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and is roofed with stone slate. A 17th-century timber-framed bell tower rises above the west end of the nave.

The nave features three two-light windows with trefoil-headed lights and a slight ogee profile, and a fourth window with a Geometric trefoil in its head. These windows lack hood mouldings. The chancel has one two-light window and two single-light low-side windows. The expansive five-light east window dates to a restoration in 1876. The east bay of the south chancel wall was rebuilt in the 16th century and features two-light windows. A chamfered wallhead table runs along the eaves of the chancel. A south priest’s door is present. The west nave wall contains three short lancet windows; the central one is raised over a buttress. Opposite the windows are nave doors, almost round-headed, chamfered, with the north door now blocked. The south porch likely dates to the 16th or 17th century, and has a round-headed outer door with key and abaci. Above the door is a trefoiled niche, topped by a cubic sundial finial.

Inside, the 3-bay nave has a wide 15th to 16th-century ridged roof with arched braces to the collar and ashlar supports. The walls have been stripped of plaster. A timber-framed rood loft door opening originally allowed access from the chancel. A timber-framed wall in the western bay incorporates posts of the bell tower. The 3-bay chancel roof has been renewed and is underdrawn in plaster at collar level; the walls are unplastered. The font is from the 12th century and sits upon a later short column with an arcaded upper carved zone and a curtained lower section. The pulpit is a fielded-panelled, half-octagon design from the 18th century, standing on a stone column. Simple 18th-century pews feature panelled ends. The chancel fittings are from the 19th century and include a wrought iron communion rail and a piscina. Monumental inscriptions are present: on the north wall of the chancel is a monument to MARY GODDARD, dated 1726, featuring a white marble relief bust within a cartouche, an urn above, and flanking obelisks carrying black marble tondi, bearing arms. The SMITH family is commemorated with a 1776 white marble aedicule by Rogers of Bath, set on a black background. In the nave is a handsome, multi-coloured marble monument to GODDARD SMITH and family, dated 1691, including a pediment on consoles, an urn above, a putto on the gable, and a cartouche below. There is an additional monument to JACOB MATTHEWS, dated 1883, and eight floor stones to the SMITH family. Early 17th-century panelling is found within the boiler enclosure. A hatchment hangs over the chancel arch.

External sculpture on the south nave wall includes a 2nd to 3rd-century limestone sculpture depicting Aesculapius standing, robed and with a snake entwined around a baluster altar, all within an exedra with a ribbed vault. A date stone inscribed "WW/MS/1699" is also located on the same wall.