St. Giles' Church, Bletchingdon

Close to Bletchingdon Park is the parish church of St. Giles, originally Norman and with a Early English Gothic chancel and 19th century north aisle. The church has a small portion of a medieval wall painting.

St. Giles' Church of comprises a chancel, nave with south door and porch, a western tower and north aisle. It is in the main a 15th-century building, but it has been much restored. Traces of earlier work can be seen in a blocked window on the north side of the chancel, and in a fragment of Romanesque carving (probably the lintel of a former south doorway) built into the south wall of the nave. The lower stage of the tower probably dates from the 13th century. The belfry is surmounted by a small square 15th-century turret with a pyramidal roof and a weather-vane.

Repairs to the chancel were carried out in the 17th century. The south porch is thought to date from 1695, the date above the sundial over the doorway. Two galleries were erected in the 18th century, one at the western end for the children and the other near the chancel. The last, the Annesleys' pew, was built in 1761 and approached by an external staircase leading through a window. In the same year the church was 'rufcasted' and the tower repaired.

In 1814 a vestry meeting ordered the nave and porch to be 'new slated and ceiled and otherwise repaired' at a cost of £295. In 1870 the dilapidated chancel was reroofed, and an estimate of £1, 015 was obtained for a thorough restoration of the whole church but the work was not undertaken until 1878.  The north aisle was then added, the square-headed east window of two lights in the chancel was replaced by one in the 14thcentury style, the galleries and the plaster ceiling of the nave were removed, and other minor repairs were carried out. Lord Valentia bore a large part of the cost.

Historical information about St. Giles' Church is provided by British History Online. 'Parishes: Bletchingdon', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 6, ed. Mary D Lobel (London, 1959), pp. 56-71. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol6/pp56-71 [accessed 12 January 2023].

St. Giles' Church is listed Grade II*. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST GILES, Bletchingdon - 1220032 | Historic England.

For more information about St. Giles' Church see Parishes: Bletchingdon | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).