St. Giles Church, Noke
St. Giles Church in Noke is a small stone building which has been much restored but dates originally from the first half of the 13th century. It comprises a nave with a small bell-cote above the western gable, chancel, and south porch. Both the chancel with its double lancet window in the south wall and the chancel arch, which is of poor proportions, are probably 13th-century. On either side of the arch are two 14th- or 15th-century niches. The nave roof is well constructed and the timber beams are old. On the north side of the nave there was a mortuary chapel, built by Joan Bradshaw (d. 1598/9) for herself and members of the Winchcombe family. Her grandson Benedict Winchcombe repaired it and left money to repair the church, the chancel of which had been ruinous in 1584. In 1745 the Winchcombe chapel, whose upkeep had become the responsibility of the Hall family, was so dilapidated that it was endangering the chancel: it was pulled down and its door in the north wall stopped up. Further repairs to the church were ordered in 1758, and it is thought that the square-headed east window of the chancel was inserted in the early 19th century. By the middle of the century there was a western gallery, since removed, and the church was described as being 'neatly paved with extraordinary good stone'. By 1870 the rector considered that it should be rebuilt, especially as it was 'deficient in design and workmanship'. However, restoration was delayed until the end of the century and was then limited to removing the plaster, repointing the walls, and replacing the square wooden belfry with its tiled roof by a stone belfry (architect W. Wilkinson of Oxford). The cylindrical font is 13th-century and rests on a circular base; the lead basin is marked 'Noke 1773'. There is a Jacobean pulpit and the remains of an iron hour-glass stand. On the north wall of the chancel is a brass, decorated with coats of arms, depicting Joan Bradshaw (d. 1598/9) and her two husbands and eight children. There are also inscriptions to Benedict Winchcombe (d. 1623) and an early 17th-century mutilated stone figure of a man. There are inscriptions from a 'fair raised monument of black marble', which bore the figure of a man lying on a cushion, and was erected in the Winchcombe chapel by Benedict Winchcombe's nephew and heir, Benedict Hall. The memorials to John Gilder, rector (d. 1697/8), and to Alexander Litchfield, rector (d. 1804), have been destroyed, but one to John Carlyle, rector (d. 1863), remains. In 1552 the church owned a silver chalice, two copes, and two vestments. There was also a lamp supported by lands worth 2d. a year. In 1596 John Harper of Noke was presented at the bishop's court for having lost the parish's pewter chalice, valued at 6d. or 7d. In 1955 the church had a chalice (1577) and paten cover (1576), both in their original case. As at the Reformation, there were two bells, but they were of 17th-century date. In the 19th century there had been a sanctus bell. In the 19th century repairs to part of the churchyard wall were the responsibility of the Blewbury Charity. The registers date from 1574. There are gaps from 1650 to 1667 in marriages and burials, and the baptisms in this period were irregularly entered Historical information about St Giles Church is provided by 'Parishes: Noke', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 6, ed. Mary D Lobel (London, 1959), pp. 268-276. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol6/pp268-276 [accessed 20 February 2023]. St Giles Church is a Grade II* listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST GILES, Noke - 1369713 | Historic England. For more information about St. Giles Church see Parishes: Noke | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk) |
