St Giles: the building
Norman Cambridge
There has been a church on this site for almost a thousand years. The story begins with William the Conqueror. He ordered a castle to be built at the top of the hill (a good place to look out across the surrounding countryside, and close to the river crossing). The man he put in charge of getting it done was also a Norman, Sheriff Robert Picot. He came here with his wife, Hugolina, also a Norman, and she became very ill. She was so ill, that in desperation she made an oath that if she were to recover, she would build a church to St Giles. Hugolina recovered, and in 1092 founded, or at least endowed, St Giles’ Church. It is possible that the church is older than that, as one of the oldest parts of the building is an archway (although the church was rebuilt in 1875, parts of the original were used). The archway is, at least to archaeologists, more Saxon in style than Norman, so it is possible that Hugolina simply endowed an existing church.
Hugolina’s church
Hugolina and Robert Picot intended St Giles as a house of six Augustinian Canons. In 1122 the new Sheriff, Pain Peverel, a crusader returned from the 1st Crusade, moved them to Barnwell, complaining that St Giles was a “ruinous” church, with no room to expand and not a good enough water supply. St Giles was small by today’s standards: the nave 23 feet wide and 40 feet long, the chancel only 16 feet wide. St Giles changed a little with the years, a porch was added (probably in the first fifty years of its founding) and windows were put in or enlarged, in the early 1500s a pulpit was added.
Victorians
A big change came in 1800 when William Farish became vicar of St Giles. At that time the church was still similar to the small building which Picot and Hugolina knew, though a porch to the west door may have been added. It was a time when preaching was regarded as the most important capability a parish priest should have, and it was also in a time of an evangelical awakening in the Church of England, and St Giles, seating only about 100 people, was much too small. Farish set out to enlarge the church, using, it seems, a good deal of his own money. It is to his credit that he did not demolish the ancient church he had come to, but instead, took off the north wall of the nave and built out from there a great auditorium, with raked floor and a gallery on three sides, so increasing the seating to accommodate six hundred, and he had plans to build a yet higher gallery if need should arise.
William Farish
Extension
in 1800, preaching, more than any other aspect of formal worship, was important. A critic in the Ecclesiologist compared the development of St Giles’ to a theatre. and he was right - a three decker pulpit took the place of a stage, and to the left of the pulpit, to those sitting to the front of the new extension, was a view of the chancel of the original church - in which some of his congregation still rented pews. The altar was out of sight of almost everyone. The old church is shown below, One description mentions that “In a bend of the west wall of the churchyard about 20 steps to the left of the gate were the Parish Stocks. The place is still marked by a break in the brick-work; and on the right-hand side of the gate-at the Chesterton Lane corner-was the usual Parish Pump"
_edited.jpg)
.png)
Rebuilding
By the latter part of the century, a decision was made to replace the church and its strange extension with a new building. The new church was built next to the original, which remained in use until the new building was consecrated. Two archways, and several monuments and many other objects were moved from the old building to the new.
.png)
.png)
.png)
Today
The building was never finished, if we look (we don’t even have to look carefully!) at the plans for the church, they show a tall bell tower, which was never completed. Inside the church you can see several stone slabs in the wall which were probably originally intended to be carved, but were never done. The vestry was completed several years later, as were the stained glass windows, rood screen, reredos and many other ornamental features. Slowly, over time, the church was decorated and furnished with extra items. The work continues today - in recent times a ramped entrance, an accessible toilet, a kitchenette that is often used by those in need to make a hot drink, and a hearing loop system, have all been added. More recently, significant work to the windows, roof and guttering, have ensured that the church remains weatherproof, and the heritage within is protected.
_edited.jpg)
With thanks
Much of the work on the restoration of St Giles has been made possible through funding by the National Lottery Heritage Fund