Church Of St Giles

Church of St Giles

A parish church of 15th and early 16th-century date, with significant alterations and restoration in 1844 and 1869 by the architects Fulljames and Waller. The building is constructed of coursed, squared lias stone with ashlar dressings, and has a stone slate roof.

The church comprises a four-bay nave with a north aisle, a west tower, a south porch, a chancel, and a vestry. The south elevation features a three-stage tower with a moulded top to the plinth and diagonal buttresses. Moulded string courses run across the tower face. The second stage contains a two-light reticulated-tracery window, and the third stage has a similar window with stone louvres, with ashlar to the upper part. The tower is crenellated with a parapet, a string course below carrying two gargoyles, and a moulded rib rising up the corner. The roof is pyramidal with an iron weathervane.

The nave has square-set end and intermediate buttresses, with three-light 19th-century reticulated-tracery windows; the eastern window is Perpendicular. The eaves are plain and projecting. The porch occupies the second bay and features a plinth, diagonal corner buttresses, and a moulded door surround with a four-centred arch and hoodmould. The doors are half-glazed, replaced in 1972. A 19th-century statue stands in an original niche above the door with a hoodmould, and a sundial sits above this. The porch has a parapet gable with a cross-gablet apex carrying a stone cross (now lacking its top member). The returns contain two-light windows with moulded wooden eaves.

The chancel is slightly set back from the nave and has a plinth and a two-light reticulated-tracery window. A square-set corner buttress stands at the corner. Both nave and chancel have parapet gables with cross-gablet apices and stone crosses; an additional gablet appears at the foot of the chancel roof slope. The east end features a three-light Geometric-tracery window with foliate stops to the hoodmould.

The north elevation of the chancel mirrors the south. The vestry projects from this side, with a plinth, a boarded door, and a cinquefoil-headed lancet on the left return. A two-light window with hoodmould faces north, with a parapet gable above and a chimney stump at the apex. Stone offsets are visible. The aisle projects on the right with a plinth, end and centre square-set buttresses, and four windows: the leftmost is a three-light Perpendicular-tracery window, and the rest are two-light reticulated. Parapet gables with cross-gable apices and stone crosses top the aisle elevation, with a chimney stump on the bottom of the west gable.

The tower on the west face shows a three-light window with hoodmould to the aisle. The west face of the tower has a boarded door with an arched, moulded stone surround and a two-light window above, offset to the right, with Decorated tracery and hoodmould. The second stage is blank; the third stage matches the south side.

Internally, the porch has an arch-braced collar-rafter roof; a plastered barrel vault was inserted but has since been removed. The nave contains octagonal piers with moulded capitals and hoodmoulds to the arches. A wide 19th-century chancel arch has a corbelled inner section with an iron railing on a stone base below. The tower arch carries swelling capitals similar to those at Ashleworth. The roof comprises open hammer-beam trusses rising from stone corbels, with intermediate half trusses, two pairs of purlins with wind braces to the upper, a square ridge piece, and exposed rafters. The north aisle roof has arch-braced collar trusses with one pair of purlins and wind braces.

The three-bay chancel is fitted with dado panelling and a reredos serving as a War Memorial. The roof has arch-braced collar trusses with short king-posts, one pair of purlins, and painted decoration to the chamfers on the wallplate and braces. A semi-octagonal wooden Jacobean pulpit with corner columns and strapwork stands on a stone base; a probably 18th-century hour-glass stand is associated with it. An octagonal stone font, said to have been cut down in the 15th century from a Norman original, stands on a 19th-century stone base, with an early 18th-century wooden cover.

The church contains several monuments. A George III royal arms hangs over the south door. A Wheeler wall monument in the aisle features scrolls, a cherub, and a broken pediment, dated 1680. Marble wall monuments commemorate W. Pembruge (1738) and Pitt (1784). Three late 17th-century wall monuments stand in the nave.

The chancel was restored in 1844, and extensive restoration followed in 1869 when the north aisle was added and a gallery was removed. No medieval window tracery survives in the nave or chancel.