Church of St Giles

Church of St Giles, Bradford-on-Tone

This is a parish church dating from around 1300, with significant later additions and alterations. The building was refenestrated in the 15th century, the tower added in the early 16th century, and the roof and north wall were renewed in 1858–1859. It was restored in 1867 when a vestry was added.

The church is constructed of random rubble chert and local grey sandstone with Ham stone dressings. It has slate roofs with coped verges and crenellated parapets to the aisles and chapel, renewed in concrete on the south side. The plan comprises a west tower, a three-bay aisled nave, north and south chapels, a north-east vestry, and a chancel.

The west tower is crenellated with three stages, pinnacles and gargoyles. It has diagonal buttresses rising to string courses, a two-light bell-opening, a string course lancet, and a three-light west window with continuous hoodmould. The deeply moulded west doorway has 19th-century double doors. A stair turret with weather vane sits at the centre of the south face. The south aisle has a two-light west window. The porch on the south side is single-storey and diagonally buttressed, with a parapet featuring a gabled centre, a moulded arched opening, and a moulded pointed arch inner doorway with a 19th-century door. The porch has a one three-light window to its left and two to its right.

The projecting south chapel has a four-light mullioned window without hoodmould, a three-light east window, and a blocked priest's door. A lancet window sits on the south side of the diagonally buttressed chancel, which has a three-light east window. The vestry has a two-light window with a door on its north front. The north chapel has a three-light east window and a four-light mullioned north window without hoodmould. Remains of a rood stair projection are visible. Three two-light windows between stepped buttresses and a two-light west end window complete the fenestration.

Internally, the walls are rendered with exposed window jambs. A three-bay arcade of circular piers with pointed arches chamfered in two orders supports the nave. The chancel arch is corbelled out on the north wall over a double respond and cut on the south wall. Unequal arches to the chapels are chamfered with leaf band capitals to the north chapel and moulded to the aisle; the north side has moulded colonnettes. The four-centred tower arch is chamfered in three orders.

A cinquefoil-headed piscina is located in the north chapel, along with a door and remains of a rood stair. The 19th-century roofs are archbraced with wall plates to the nave and chancel, and have compartment ceilings to the aisles.

A recumbent effigy of a mid-14th-century knight is set into a four-centred arch niche in the south wall, possibly representing Sir John de Meriet, who died in 1391. The church contains several memorials including a Grecian-style white marble and slate tablet to Josiah Eastern of Hele, died 1848, and other family members, signed by Williams of 30 Eastern Road, London; a 19th-century brass in the chancel to the Adair family of Heatherton Park; and a black and white marble tablet to John Petten, died 1801, and family members, signed by E Gaffin of Regent Street, London.

Notable internal fittings include a fine early 18th-century pulpit carved in high relief from St Mary's, Taunton, a Perpendicular-style font of around 1870, choir stalls designed by Bligh Bond in 1912, and a late 19th-century stone reredos restored with figures of the evangelists designed by W.D. Caröe added in 1926. An organ by Aorgan and Smith of Brighton was installed in 1913.

Stained glass includes a west window by the firm Burridge of Wellington, another window by Bell of Bristol, and a window in the north aisle by Gerald Coles, designed in 1967 in memory of Hugh Easton, a stained glass artist who died in 1965, and James Easton, an engineer who died in 1871.

In 1387, a chantry chapel was founded at St Giles by Sir John de Meriet.