Church Of St Giles

Church of St Giles

A parish church of rubble stone with granite dressings and slate roof with 19th-century crested ridge tiles. The building comprises a 13th-century chancel and possibly tower, a 15th-century south aisle added to the original small 13th-century church of west tower, nave and chancel.

The church underwent significant alterations in the 19th century: reseating by Sedding around 1868 (recorded in Whites Directory), with the south wall rebuilt, the tower raised and re-roofed, and the body of the church re-roofed by J.P. St Aubyn in 1878. The architectural detail is mostly Perpendicular and 19th-century in character, with some Early English features surviving.

The east end displays deep eaves and bargeboards of decoratively-cut slate characteristic of St Aubyn's work. The chancel window is a late 13th-century cinquefoil-headed lancet with deep internal splay. Flanking the priest's doorway (a chamfered 2-centred arched opening with broach stops) are a pair of chamfered lancets, probably 19th-century copies of medieval originals with stanchions, saddle bars and deep internal splays. The 3-light 15th-century Perpendicular granite east window has cusped lights, hoodmould and label stops.

The south aisle features deep eaves with slate bargeboards. Its east window is a 3-light granite Perpendicular design with hoodmould and carved label stops. Three 3-light south windows include two late 15th-century granite examples with carved label stops and one 19th-century freestone replacement, all square-headed with cusped lights.

The south-west porch has deep eaves and slate bargeboards. It contains a shallow-moulded outer doorway with slightly cambered head and a circa 1878 roof. The inner doorway is a 2-centred arched chamfered opening with broach stops. The porch floor is laid with slates on end in chequerboard pattern.

The 2-stage unbuttressed west tower, flush with the nave wall, features a high string course, an 1878 pyramidal slate roof and a 19th-century polygonal stone chimney shaft on the south-west corner piercing the roof. The hollow-chamfered 2-centred arched west doorway has broach stops, hoodmould and label stops. The north, south and east faces display 2-light square-headed cusped belfry openings of 19th-century date. The tower is crowned by a 19th-century weathervane.

Internally, the walls are plastered except for the west wall. There is no chancel arch. The tower arch is low with double-chamfered moulding and approximately semi-circular head. The 5-bay south arcade features granite piers composed of four hollows and four shafts with carved moulded capitals to the shafts only; the hollows terminate in moulded stops. The capitals are unusually large for the pier height. The roof comprises circa 1878 braced collar rafter construction with struts to wallplates. Timber work is open above the arcade between nave and aisle.

The font may date to the 12th or 13th century: a plain porphyry bowl on a square base carved with palmettes in roundels and ramshorn stops, though the base is not necessarily contemporary with the bowl.

The chancel screen consists of two sections of cut-down wainscot from a circa late 15th-century rood screen. Unusual softwood bench ends of 16th or possibly 17th-century date are repaired and fitted to 19th-century benches. The ends are wide and rectangular with hollow-chamfered borders, with debased blind tracery carved below various motifs including a flower, fleur de lis and man's head.

Furnishings include a circa early 20th-century timber pulpit with traceried panels on a granite base, an early 20th-century gabled timber reredos with nodding ogee central gable and side panels carved with lilies and roses, and a 19th-century timber lectern.

Memorial slates are displayed on the walls: a large ledger stone on the east wall of the south aisle commemorating Thomas Carey (dated probably 1583) with inscription around border; on the south aisle wall a segmental-headed slate to Thomas Spettigue of East Panson, died 1735, with inscription framed by Corinthian pilasters and entablature; on the north aisle wall a nowy-headed slate to Edward Mill, died 1760, and family members, with carved flower and angel in the head and scratch-moulded border. A circa early 19th-century reredos fixed to the south wall of the aisle at the west end comprises four slate panels inscribed with the Ten Commandments, Creed and Lord's Prayer; the outer panels are pedimented, the inner panels segmental-headed with IHS monogram above.