Church of St Giles

The Church of St Giles is a late medieval parish church, largely dating to the 15th century, built of local lias limestone with pronounced batter and dressed stone quoins, and covered by Welsh slate roofs. It comprises a nave, a west bell-turret, a south porch, and a chancel.

The porch, central to the south wall of the nave, is gabled and projects deeply, featuring a pointed arch of two chamfered orders, small windows in the side walls, and a coped gable with an apex cross. The porch roof is Victorian. Within the porch is a plain chamfered arch leading to a fine panelled medieval door, likely dating from 1450 to 1480. The nave has a two-light window on either side of the porch, dating to the early 16th century. These windows feature 4-centred heads, hollow chamfers, spandrels, and hoodmoulds; the left-hand window has cusped ogee-headed lights, while the right-hand one has cinquefoil heads. Two small trefoil-headed lights are situated at the right-hand end of the wall, intended for the Rood. The building has eaves supported by brackets and coped gables crowned with a cross on the east gable. The bell turret, situated on the west gable, is corbelled out above the roof, with small belfry openings and a castellated parapet. The turret is wider than it is thick and appears to be a later addition, potentially from 1903. It is also corbelled over the west wall, with another opening. A seemingly 18th-century pointed arch doorway with a hollow chamfer is present in the wall below, presumed to have been for the benefit of the Rector or Lord of the Manor, and is now blocked. The chancel has two trefoil-headed lights at differing levels on the south wall, and a 16th-century two-light east window similar to those on the nave. It has bracketed eaves, but the gable is uncoped, and the roofline is lower than that of the nave. The chancel north wall is blind, as is that of the nave, apart from a single trefoil-headed light at high level, also for the Rood.

The interior is plastered and painted, revealing some stone features. The chancel arch is of dressed limestone, seemingly reconstructed in 1903, and the tower arch is similar but has a rebuilt head. Doorways lead to the rood stairs in the north wall. The roofs are 15th century, featuring carved windbraces, arch braced collar beams, two tiers of purlins, and windbraces. The collar purlin is decorated with bosses, which are likely additions from 1903. The roofs were largely reconstructed during the 1903 restoration, incorporating replaced timbers and new boarding. The nave roof has four bays, while the chancel and porch roofs each have two bays. A plain Norman tub font has a fine decorated 16th-century conical timber cover. The furnishings are mostly from 1903, with the exception of a 1700 twisted baluster altar rail and a pulpit memorializing Francis Edwards, who died in 1882. A partly 15th-century chancel screen features simple panel tracery. Several good memorials are present, especially that of Mayor William Giles, who died in 1673, though the memorial’s date may correspond with a later recorded death, possibly in 1724.