Church of St Giles is a Grade II* listed building in the Exmoor National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 6 April 1959. A Medieval Parish church.
Church of St Giles
- WRENN ID
- grim-wattle-dust
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Exmoor National Park
- Constituency
- Tiverton and Minehead MP: Rachel Gilmour (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 6 April 1959
- Type
- Parish church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Giles, Withypool and Hawkridge, Somerset
- OS grid reference
- SS 861 306
- Coordinates
- 51.06384, -3.62666
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Giles is a parish church with origins dating back to the Norman period, featuring a south door from that era. The chancel and base of the tower are from the 14th century, while the remainder of the church is in the Perpendicular style and was restored in 1878. It is constructed from local stone random rubble with a plinth to the chancel and Ham stone dressings, topped with slate roofs.
The church has a west tower, a three-bay nave, and a chancel. The tower is crenellated and consists of two stages, with diagonal buttresses on the second stage and a string course. It features a louvred lancet bell opening and a four-light west window. The west door is accessed through an unmoulded, semi-circular headed doorway, and there is a crenellated northeast stair turret. A buttress is present at the southwest corner of the nave, with a two-light window to the left of a gabled, single-storey porch that has a 19th-century semi-circular arched opening. The church also has a semi-circular headed Norman doorway with zig-zag moulding on the extrados and capitals featuring incised designs, along with a renewed inner arch and chamfered jambs, leading to a 19th-century door. To the right, there is a three-light trefoil headed mullioned window set into a rebuilt section of the nave wall, with a chamfered corner at the junction with the chancel. The chancel has a two-light window and a three-light east window. The north front is unlit and includes a rood stair projection and a lean-to roofed addition, which is believed to house the heating system boiler.
Inside, the church is rendered, featuring a shallow chancel arch and an unchamfered four-centred tower arch. The chancel has a 19th-century shallow ceiled wagon roof, as does the nave. There is a panelled screen at the tower arch. The font is a Norman baluster style, cable moulded with an incised grid pattern on the bowl. A 13th-century stone coffin lid with a chamfered cornice and defaced foliage cross bears an inscription that is thought to refer to William de Plessy, Lord of the manor, who died in 1274. This coffin lid was discovered in the wall behind the pulpit in 1877, removed from the church, and later returned in 1931. The chancel arch wall also features a painted Royal Coat of Arms of Queen Victoria, inscribed with 'WHM and JC churchwardens 1877'.
Local climate
Church of St Giles sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,030 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 83% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 89% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 19 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 9 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 2 transactions since 2007
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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