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St. Giles' Church in Standlake, so called probably by 1230 and certainly by 1439,  comprises chancel, north and south transepts each formerly with an east chapel, aisled nave with south porch, and octagonal west tower with spire. The chancel arch and the thick west wall of the nave, which has flat external buttresses, are of the late 12th century, and there may formerly have been a large west tower within the area of the later nave, which is of notable length. In the earlier 13th century the chancel was rebuilt on a large scale, with a triplet of lancets at its east end and a round-headed doorway in its north wall. The asymmetrical transepts, with east chapels or apses, were added about the same time, perhaps c. 1235 when indulgences were granted to those visiting a 'chapel' founded and built in Standlake; the entrance to a rood loft survives high up in the south transept's north-east corner, and the outline of a piscina immediately south of the north transept's former east chapel. A small chapel was built soon after into the angle between the nave and the south transept, indicating that there was then no south aisle; since the north transept is longer than the south there may, however, have been a north aisle. Both aisles were either newly built or remodelled in the early 14th century, the date of their windows and of the surviving south arcade, and about the same time a window with a cusped rere-arch was inserted into the south transept's south wall. Similarities to the pier and tracery forms of Bampton church, remodelled c. 1317, suggest that the same masons were employed. In the mid 14th century the north arcade was rebuilt, and the unusual, three-staged octagonal tower and spire, reminiscent of the tower at Cogges, were added; also in the mid 14th century, windows with flowing tracery were inserted into the north walls of the chancel and of the north transept, the latter window perhaps associated with Simon of Evesham's chantry. The south porch, rebuilt in the 19th century, was probably of similar date.

Indulgences were granted c. 1439 to those giving alms towards the church's conservation. Perhaps at that time the chancel's east windows were blocked and replaced with external canopied niches, implying that there was a substantial reredos. A nave clerestory was added c. 1500 and the roof pitch lowered, though the steeper gables at the nave's east end and against the tower were retained. About the same time two four-light, square-headed windows were inserted into the south wall of the chancel and the west end of the south aisle, the cill of the former being dropped to form double sedilia with arm rests. The work may have been instigated by the rector Richard Salter, who inserted or repaired one of the chancel windows in 1503. 

The chapels east of the transepts were demolished and their opening arches blocked presumably after the suppression of chantries; the former opening in the south transept includes a two-light window presumably of 16th-century date. The church was 'in decay' in the early 17th century when disputes arose over church rates levied for repairs, and in the early 1660s the rector John Dale went to 'great expense' in restoring and wainscotting the chancel. The nave roof was repaired c. 1787, reportedly re-using 16th-century timbers, and general repairs were undertaken from c. 1803. Then or later the chancel was reroofed in 'meagre' fashion, and before 1871 the blocked east windows were restored. 

In 1831 the church was said to be in good repair, but in 1854 the spire was 'ruinous'. By the 1870s the roof leaked, the walls bulged and were disfigured by moss, and the floors were so rotten that in the chancel they had fallen through, exposing tombs beneath. Restoration by the architect C. Clapton Rolfe was carried out in four stages between 1880 and 1891, financed chiefly from local fund-raising and private donations. The walls were repointed and in places rebuilt, the south doorway was replaced by one in 13th-century style, and the church was entirely reroofed, the new nave and chancel roofs incorporating carved figures of angels. The porch was rebuilt in its former style re-using original stonework. Rediscovered lancets in the chancel's north wall and in the north transept and a late 13th-century two-light window in the north aisle's west end were reopened, and the mid 14th- and 15th-century windows in the chancel were blocked. A western gallery was removed, and the church was repewed and refurnished throughout, the south transept being refitted as a baptistry and the north as a choir vestry. The tower was restored in 1911. Substantial repairs to the nave roof were required c. 1950, a consequence partly of wartime bomb damage and partly of structural defects, and general repairs were carried out in 1970-1.  A major restoration in the early 1990s included reroofing, and repair of stonework, timber, and glass. Heating was by stove in 1880, and electric heating was introduced c. 1959; electric lighting replaced oil lamps c. 1949. 

New furnishings introduced between 1880 and 1891 included carved woodwork by Harry Hems of Exeter, notably an oak pulpit and lectern, oak pews with bench ends featuring representations of saints, an oak screen shutting off the north transept vestry, choir stalls with representations of the apostles, and an oak altar with a central figure of Christ, modelled on the altarpiece of Magdalen College chapel.  A carved oak cupboard was made from the 17th-century pulpit by a local craftsman. The Norman font, then in the north aisle but behind the communion rail in the earlier 19th century, was replaced in 1883 by a new one in the south transept, with an elaborately carved cover by Hems. A pipe organ installed in the north transept in 1967 following local controversy was replaced by an electronic organ before 1978. 

Remains of red colouring survive on the south transept's blocked eastern arch, and remains of a red consecration cross on the lintel of an original cupboard behind the main altar. Fragments of medieval stained glass in the south transept's west window, of various dates between the 14th century and the 16th, include part of an inscription of 1503 to the rector Richard Salter, formerly in the chancel. A representation of St. Giles survived in one of the chancel's south windows in the 18th century. Modern stained glass in the chancel, installed in 1892 and 1894, commemorates members of the Strickland and Cottrell-Dormer families of Cokethorpe House, some or all of it by Burlison and Grylls of London. A window in the south transept commemorates James Florey (d. 1882) of Brighthampton.

A small, 13th-century tomb recess survives in the chancel's external south wall. Headless statues of St. Thomas and St. John the Evangelist, discovered in the north aisle c. 1888, are probably 14th-century, and were perhaps associated with Simon of Evesham's chantry; they were reset in the south transept in 1994. Later monuments include memorials to members of the Strickland and Western families of Cokethorpe House and to several rectors; lost monuments include a brass to Joan (d. 1465/6), wife of John Gaunt of Gaunt House. 

The plate includes an 'Elizabethan' chalice and paten cover, and a silver paten cover of 1697 inscribed I:C, presumably for John Chambers, rector 1684-1721. Robert Radborne (d. 1557) bequeathed a 'large bell' to the church, and from the 18th century there was a ring of five by Henry Bagley III, dated 1709, 1710, and 1730. The tenor, split by 1837, was replaced in 1843 by a bell by William Taylor, and in 1887 the bells were rehung and a treble by Mears Stainbank added as a Jubilee offering, making a ring of six. The present fourth was recast in 1931, when a cast iron frame replaced the wooden one. The saunce, by Thomas Rudhall of Gloucester, is dated 1781. The registers begin c. 1559. 

The churchyard was extended westwards in 1899 after plans for a separate cemetery were abandoned; it was further enlarged in 1953. 

Historical information about St. Giles' Church is provided by British History Online. A P Baggs, Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, C J Day, Nesta Selwyn and S C Townley, 'Standlake: Church', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 13, Bampton Hundred (Part One), ed. Alan Crossley and C R J Currie (London, 1996), pp. 197-203. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol13/pp197-203 [accessed 24 April 2023]..

St. Giles' Church is a Grade II* listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST GILES, Standlake - 1367885 | Historic England.

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