Nominal: 724.5 Hz Weight: 1569 lbs Diameter: 42.5" Bell 1 of 8
Founded by Ellis I Knight 1632
Dove Bell ID: 5158 Tower ID: 10578 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: eighth Cracked: No
Oxford: St Giles
Diocese of Oxford
Church, 627220
Overview
Grid reference: SP 511 69
Stone church, first mentioned 1138 from which date the earliest fabric and features date, including lower stage of the west tower. Originally built outside the north gate and the walls of the city. Early 13th-century chancel, tower, north and south aisles and arcades and south porch. Nave and aisle walls rose 15th-16th century. Early 13th-century font and 17th and 18th-century monuments. Church restored by H J Underwood, 1850-2 including rebuilding of south chapel, east window restored by J M Derick. Chancel repaired 1879 under Blomfield and restored again in 1920.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
5-bay aisled nave, west tower, 3-bay chancel and south chapel, south porch.
Dimensions:
[Approximate] Nave 20m (66ft) x 8m (25ft), aisles 3.5m (11ft5in) wide, chancel 12m (39ft) long.
Footprint of Church buildings: 562 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The church has a complex and interesting history and development, which could benefit from fresh research. Oxford was a Saxon Burh and town, probably founded circa 912: the town defences are mentioned in the Burgal Hideage. It had become one of the most important towns in Wessex by the Conquest. The church was built after the Conquest 500 yards north of Oxford's city wall where St Michael at the North Gate still stands. The motive is unclear; perhaps there was an intention to use the church as the nucleus of a suburb, which took until the 18th century to develop, with flocks of sheep still a common sight in the area into the 19th century.
In 1138 the church and all its property was granted to Godstow Abbey, 2 miles to the north-west. St Hugh is said to have consecrated the church in 1200, and supposedly in commemoration of this consecration St Giles’ Fair was founded to take place on the Monday and Tuesday after the Sunday following the Saint’s Day, the first of September. The fair is still held today.
The chancel, north and south aisles and arcades and the south porch date to the early 13th century. The nave walls were raised in the late 15th- early 16th century with the addition of parapets, and new windows. Godstow Abbey surrendered St Giles' church and all its lands to the Crown in 1539 at the Dissolution. In 1542 the Crown granted St Giles' to Dr George Owen of Godstow, a physician of King Henry VIII. In 1573 his son Richard Owen sold the church to Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London, who in 1555 had refounded the Cistercian house of St Bernard on the east side of St Giles' Street as St John's College. Sir Thomas granted St Giles' to St John's, which since then has held the advowson of the parish.
Incumbents of St Giles' have included two notable supporters of Bishop Laud; William Juxon from 1610 to 1615 and Thomas Turner from 1624 to 1629. The church was damaged during the siege by the Parliamentarian army in the English Civil War in Oxford. John Goad, vicar from 1644 until 1646, is said to have led services in St Giles during the Parliamentary artillery bombardment.
The church building received minor repairs during the 17th and 18th centuries. The church was restored by H J Underwood in 1850-2 including (total?) rebuilding of the south chapel, chapel east window restored by J M Derick. Chancel repaired 1879 under Blomfield, and restored again in 1920. Recently the south-east chapel was fitted out for small services. Plans are afoot to improve the access via the south porch including removing the steps, and an archaeological investigation of the footings was underway at the time of the visit.
The church is now relatively central within the modern city. As north Oxford was built up and its population grew, new parishes were created out of parts of St Giles'. They included St Philip and St James', consecrated in 1862 and St Margaret's, consecrated as a daughter church of SS Philip and James in 1883. St Giles remains a separate ecclesiastical parish but is now reunited with the parish of St Philip and St James with St Margaret in a united benefice.
Exterior Description
One of the great, and perhaps most unsung, parish churches of Oxford. Despite later alterations this church maintains the feel and much of the substance of a 13th-century building. The west tower gives the church strong vertical emphasis looking north-west down St Giles’ Street. It has a crenellated parapet, 2-light pointed belfry openings with unusual slits in the broad tympani under hoodmoulds, the belfry defined by string-courses; clock faces underneath. The tower and south aisle have no buttresses, and the general look is clean and simple.
Complicated roof-lines, the low-pitched nave higher than the chancel, the chancel higher than the gabled south chapel. The aisles and nave have plain Perpendicular parapets. The south aisle has three narrow pointed lancets to the west of the south porch, east of which are two more such and then a 2-light pointed window with intersecting tracery. The north aisle wall has cross-gables with 2-lights to the two western bays and a 3-light in the east bay, all with continuous hoodmoulds and of the 13th century, partly restored. Flat buttresses, look very modern.
Large Victorian buttresses to the south chapel, which has a priest’s door to the west of a lancet and a 2-light pointed window, larger 3-light pointed window to the east end with Geometrical tracery. The chancel has two 2-light pointed windows with hoodmoulds each side of a lancet, and a 3-light with Early English tracery in the east wall. The porch is 13th-century in origin but heavily rebuilt, the entrance arches Victorian.
Building Fabric and Features
Nave
13th century
Clerestory
16th century
Tower (component)
13th century
Chancel
13th century
Chapel (component)
19th century rebuilt
Porch
13th century south
Building Materials
Limestone
13th century coursed
Ashlar
13th century dressings
Slate
19th century roof tiles
Interior
Interior Description
Entering the church, the interior is of high quality architecturally, uncluttered, whitewashed and fully pewed with plain benches (not fixed) in the nave and aisles, simple low choir stalls. Across the west bay of the church is a modern wooden screen behind which is the organ with the pipes and console displayed, vestry, office and toilets, the spaces apparently for the congregation only.
The aisle arcades are carried on pointed and double-chamfered arches supported by columns with round abaci, 13th-century, though clearly the aisles were built at different times, the north aisle perhaps slightly later, terminating at the east end in a trumpet console rather than an engaged column as with the south aisle, chamfered plain respond. Pointed chancel and south chapel arch in the same style. There are round-arched recessed colonnades along the aisle walls, an unusual feature, and rere-arches with detached colonettes to the cross gable windows. The floors are of sandstone slabs, with inset ledger stones. Open timber roofs with collars.
Looking east there is a square aumbry in the north wall of the chancel, possibly original. On the south side there are re-set Norman columns from the earliest phase flanking a pointed blank arch with inset Victorian piscina, west of this a large round arch to the south chapel. Diaper and lozenge carved decoration on east wall below the window. The south chapel has modern light-stained wooden fittings, used for Taize and small services.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
19th century Victorian chest to High Altar.
Pulpit
19th century Hexagonal oak with restrained blind tracery, coved stem, Victorian.
Lectern
19th century Pine brass eagle.
Font (component)
13th century Square bowl with corner colonettes and vertical dogtooth strips, supported on central stem and corner colonettes. Victorian lid.
Rail
19th century brass tubular rails
Stained Glass (window)
19th century 2-light window in south chapel, by Powell 1862. Late Victorian glass in most windows.
Organ (component)
19th century 3-manual organ by Hill & Son of 1875.
Bells
Nominal: 1453.5 Hz Weight: 480 lbs Diameter: 26.5" Bell 2 of 8
Founded by Mears & Stainbank 1927
Dove Bell ID: 34279 Tower ID: 10578 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Nominal: 1363 Hz Weight: 492 lbs Diameter: 27.13" Bell 3 of 8
Founded by Mears & Stainbank 1927
Dove Bell ID: 34280 Tower ID: 10578 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Nominal: 1232.5 Hz Weight: 581 lbs Diameter: 29.5" Bell 4 of 8
Founded by William Taylor 1850
Dove Bell ID: 34281 Tower ID: 10578 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: eighth Cracked: No
Nominal: 1083 Hz Weight: 599 lbs Diameter: 30.75" Bell 5 of 8
Founded by William Taylor 1850
Dove Bell ID: 34282 Tower ID: 10578 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: eighth Cracked: No
Nominal: 969 Hz Weight: 734 lbs Diameter: 33" Bell 6 of 8
Founded by William Taylor 1850
Dove Bell ID: 34283 Tower ID: 10578 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: eighth Cracked: No
Nominal: 907.5 Hz Weight: 911 lbs Diameter: 35.25" Bell 7 of 8
Founded by William Taylor 1850
Dove Bell ID: 34284 Tower ID: 10578 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: eighth Cracked: No
Nominal: 813.5 Hz Weight: 986 lbs Diameter: 38" Bell 8 of 8
Founded by William Taylor 1850
Dove Bell ID: 34285 Tower ID: 10578 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: eighth Cracked: No
Portable Furnishings and Artworks
Registers since 1576 held at the CRO
Churchyard
Grid reference: SP 511 69
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Submit a change
If you notice something incorrect or missing, please explain it in the form below and submit it to our team for review.