Church of St Giles (Church of England)

Details

TL 3731 WYDDIAL WYDDIAL (North side)

10/150 Church of St. Giles 22.2.67 (C of E)

GV I

Parish church. Nave C14, W tower early C15, chancel C15, N aisle and N chapel 1532 for George Canon. Nave restored and chancel and S porch rebuilt 1859 by Baillie & Co.. Flint rubble with stone dressings, remains of external plaster on tower butting up to quoins, thin red brick to arcade and external walls of N aisle and N chapel, and steep old red tile roofs. Lead spire with vane on tower. A Perp Church of 3-bay nave, 2-bay square ended chancel, unbuttressed 3-stage battlemented W tower, S porch, and a fine brick N aisle and N chancel chapel dedicated to St. George and dated by a recorded brass to 1532. C19 Chancel has 3-light E window with cinquefoil in head, 2 paired lancet windows on S, and arch-braced open timber roof with wallposts and corbels. C15 tall chancel arch of 2 moulded orders, the inner only on engaged shafts with moulded caps and bases. Large 2-centred brick arch opening into N chapel of 2 double hollow-chamfered orders with octagonal responds and chamfered capitals closed by an elaborate early C17 carved and pierced oak panelled screen with arched double door, arcaded top and grotesque figures interrupting a dentilled entablature with swelled frieze. The nave has C19 open timber roof, S wall features, and panelled pulpit and pews. Grouped lancet windows, one to light pulpit at E, single window to E of porch and similar window at W of 2-centred arched S door. 3½ bays arch-braced moulded roof with 2 purlins, wind-bracing, and moulded king-posts set on collars with axial bracing to ridgepiece. Moulded wallplate with collar pieces. Arch braces spring from stone corbels. 3 bay C16 N arcade of brick, probably originally plastered but now colour-washed red and tuck pointed with narrow black joints. Wide 2-centred arches of 3 chamfered orders, the middle chamfer hollow, on brick piers with semi-octagonal shafts on cardinal faces and hollow chamfered shafts on the diagonals. S side of tall C17 panelled box pews in N aisle block the middle and E arches of arcade. Tall C15 tower arch of 2 orders, only the inner carried on half-octagonal shafts with moulded caps and bases. W-tower has chamfered string courses to 3 diminishing stages, W window of 2 lights under a quatrefoil in a 2-centred head. S lit only in middle stage with clockface on S. 2-light pointed bell openings with trefoil headed lights. Gargoyle to parapet base-course. C19 gabled S porch faced in knapped flints with Early English style moulded entrance with small raised shafts and single lancet side windows. Continuous N brick range of N aisle and N chapel of 1532 has moulded external plinth offset and eaves course, diagonal corner buttresses with stone watertables, canted brick projection for full height at W end, plastered gable triangles, 2 2-light C15 traceried stone windows probably reset from nave at W and W end of N wall, 4 brick-traceried 3-light windows on N with heavy moulded hoodmoulds and lozenge shaped terminals, more elaborate 3-light brick E window with cinquefoil lights and six small lights in the head under a Tudor arch with hoodmould. Early C17 classical stone N doorway with round head, moulded square surround and full entablature. Plain impost blocks and keystone breaking up into frieze. Interior has continuous segmental plaster barrel-vault, with 2 iron tie-rods. An elaborately carved early C17 arcaded screen with entablature separates the chapel, the single door being offset to N to accomodate the former box pews, the carved panelled sides of which now form a dado at the W end of the aisle. Plainer C17 panelling as original dado along N wall. Elaborate moulding on N face of brick arch from chancel to chapel and 'front' face of screen faces into chapel. In 2 of N windows of aisle are 8 panels of mid C16 Flemish stained glass. Monuments: George Canon d.1532 (upper half missing) on W wall of N chapel; palimpsest to John Gille d.1546 with wife and children in chancel; Margaret Plumbe d.1575 a demi figure with 4 shields on stone panel with moulded surround in chancel; Margery Disney d.1621 a wooden tablet with gilt inscription in black arabesque border on grey ground, in nave; Sir William Goulston d.1687 a large wall monument in chapel with inscription on gilt tasselled drape above Baroque gadrooned base supported by deathsheads and cherubs. Barley-sugar black shafts but white marble bases and Corinthian cups, 2 white busts in black niches. Full entablature with urn of black and white between reclining figures on swans neck pediment; undecipherable fine early C18 wall monument to S of chapel alter with black panel framed in fruit festooned Corithian pilasters supporting a broken pediment with fresco painted achievement and heavy swags on surrounding plastered wall; wall monument in N aisle to Brabazon Ellis d.1780 with draped urn and achievement on grey marble cenatoph over a grey marble surround to white marble tablet. Figure carved in oval frame on tooled based. Fittings: mid C19 communion rail, lectern, pulpit and seats. Chapel alter frontal of wood with blind C14 tracery. C19 screen to tower arch carefully copying early C17 screens to N chapel. Some moulded C17 panels incorporated in C19 pews. A medieval church of outstanding interest for its brick N aisle and N chapel of 1532 and the C16 stained glass, monuments and C17 carved woodwork. (RCHM (1911) 244-5: VCH (1914) 117-8: Kelly (1914) 295: Pevsner (1977) 411).

Listing NGR: TL3741431763

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

160371

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1914), 117-8
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 411
Kellys Directory in Hertfordshire, (1914), 295

Other
Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire, (1910)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.