Anglican And Methodist Church Of St Giles

Anglican and Methodist Church of St Giles

Parish church on Lower Street in Desborough. The building dates from the 13th to 16th centuries, with substantial restoration undertaken in the mid-19th century. It is built of squared ironstone and limestone ashlar with limestone dressings, and has lead and slate roofs.

The plan comprises a west tower with spire, a nave with clerestory, aisles, transepts, vestry, chancel, and north and south porches.

The four-stage west tower dates to the early 16th century and is notable for its clasping buttresses, moulded string courses, and quatrefoil frieze with gargoyles. The first stage contains a roll-moulded doorway with hood mould to the west, and above it a cusped double lancet with hood mould linked to the string course. A memorial tablet of 1843 is set in the south side. The third stage has single lancets to north and south, with a clock dated 1889 to the north. The fourth stage has paned transomed lancet bell-chamber openings on each side with ogee-headed surrounds. The broached octagonal spire rises above, featuring a crenellated base with corner pinnacles, a high crocketed band, finial and weathercock. Two tiers of gabled lucarnes on the principal faces contain transomed double lancets in the lower tier.

The clerestory has three bays and a parapet with a single bellcote on the east gable. To the west are 15th-century flat-headed two-light windows, while to the east are two similar openings containing 19th-century casements. The aisles have plinths and coped parapets. The north aisle has a 19th-century Perpendicular two-light window with flat head at its west end, and a rainwater head dated 1905. The south aisle has a restored angle buttress to the west and a 15th-century two-light window with flat head at the west end.

The transepts date to the late 13th and 15th centuries. They have chamfered plinths, sill bands and coped parapets with gable crosses. The gables contain late 13th-century triple lancets with intersecting tracery. The north transept has diagonal buttresses and late 13th-century Y-traceried double lancets to the east side, all with hood moulds. The west side has a 15th-century Perpendicular double lancet. The south transept has angle buttresses plus a smaller central buttress, with late 13th-century Y-traceried double lancets to the east side, above which are two 15th-century ogee double lancets with panel tracery. The west side has a similar double lancet.

The mid-19th-century parapeted vestry has a Geometrical double lancet to the north and a doorway to the east with a round window above, both with hood moulds.

The chancel, comprising two bays, has a chamfered plinth and coped parapet with gable cross. The east end has a single gabled buttress to the north and an angle buttress to the south. A mid-19th-century Geometrical four-light lancet with hood mould is set in the east wall. The south side has a central buttress and a blocked doorway to its left, above which are two 15th-century cusped double lancets.

The 19th-century north porch has a roll-moulded doorway with shafts, a coped gable with kneelers and cross, and a scissor-braced roof. The inner doorway is a 13th-century coved and roll-moulded opening with shafts and hood mould. The shallow south porch contains a 13th-century roll-moulded doorway with shafts, hood mould and mask stops, and a coped gable with kneelers.

Interior

A 16th-century moulded tower arch has a central quatrefoil pier with unusual stiff-leaf capital, an octagonal respond to the east and a mask corbel to the west.

The south arcade dates to the 14th century and features octagonal pier and east respond with impost to the west, both with double-chamfered arches and hood moulds. The low-pitched roof has a moulded tie-beam inscribed "H R CARP 1629" and others with initials dated 1838 and 1860. Struts to wall shafts have traceried spandrels, and five re-set corbels are present.

The north aisle contains 1945 panelling at its west end and a stained-glass window of about 1907. The east end has a 14th-century double-chamfered arch with a re-set mask corbel. A 15th-century roof has a moulded cambered tie-beam and wall shafts.

The south aisle has a similar eastern arch with two mask stops and a 19th-century roof that replicates the north side roof.

The transepts have 19th-century moulded arch-braced roofs. The north transept has a 13th-century double-lancet opening into the vestry to the south-east, two re-set roof brackets and a mask corbel to its right.

The south transept contains a 16th-century traceried oak screen, restored in 1918. The east side has a central window with stained glass by Smith of London of about 1945 and a stained-glass window of about 1953 to its right. Beyond is an ogee-headed niche with a re-set finial and a 13th-century style piscina. To the left is a doorway to the rood stair with a representation of a roof above it.

The chancel has a 14th-century double-chamfered arch with hood mould and octagonal responds, and a moulded sill band. The north side has a 19th-century archway with a 20th-century screen and door to the left, and a square aumbry to the right. The east end has panelled dado and a large corbelled figure bracket to the right of the window. The south side has a 13th-century double piscina to the east and a heavily restored 13th-century sedilia with clustered shafts. Two stained-glass windows date to 1870 and 1918. The roof is 19th-century with moulded arch-braces.

Fittings include a 19th-century font and pulpit in 13th-century style, 19th-century benches and stalls with shaped ends dated 1949, and a brass eagle lectern of 1919.

Memorials include three fragments of Anglo-Saxon crosses, a painted Coade stone wall memorial with sarcophagus, crest and cherubs to Mary Poulton of 1749, a mid-18th-century donations tablet, memorial tablets, and replica brasses dated 1584 and 1598.