The Church Explorer: St Giles Tetsworth

Saturday, 13 September 2025

St Giles Tetsworth

I visited this on on whim thinking it may be open but was disappointed to find it locked, admittedly I just hoping it would be open but unsure. I managed to contact the office and luck found out the church would be open for some work being done in the bell loft so I got the photos inside I wanted on the second attempt

"The Church of England parish church of Saint Giles was originally Saxon. It was largely rebuilt in the 12th century in the Norman style, with some fine features including the tympanum over the south door. The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century, and in the 15th century, new Perpendicular Gothic windows were inserted in the nave. St. Giles was a prebendal chapel of the parish of Thame until 1841, when Tetsworth was made a separate ecclesiastical parish.

The first incumbent of the new parish was Rev. John W. Peers, a member of the Peers family of Chiselhampton House. (He was vicar from 1841 until 1876). In 1846, Peers had a vicarage built, and in 1851, he proposed to demolish the parish church and replace it with a new one. The Oxford diocesan architect, G. E. Street, reported that parts of the old church building were "of very considerable merit, and in good preservation," the chancel was "very perfect," and it would be "very inadvisable" to allow their demolition. Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, also opposed the Peers' proposal. Nevertheless, Peers demolished the old church, and in 1855 the new one was completed and Bishop Wilberforce consecrated it.

The architect John Billing designed the new church in the Early English Gothic style. Sherwood and Pevsner described the new building as "a clumsy design" and the bell-tower as "excessively heavy". By the end of the 18th century, the old church had a ring of six bells. They were rehung in the new church, and Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry recast them all in 1936. The Old Vicarage has been Grade II listed since 1963 as "Vicarage, now house. c.1846" and the Church of Saint Giles was also Grade II listed since that year. The summary for the latter includes this description:^"

"Church. c.1855, by J. Billing of Reading. Coursed squared stone; old plain-tile roof to nave, aisle, chancel and vestry; stone tower. 5-bay nave with south aisle, 2-bay chancel, tower to south, vestry to north. Early English style. 2-centre arched doorway to base of tower with double-leaf plank doors."

Path leading to the church the tower stands out as being over to the south of the church

Around the north west side of the church

South west side

East end

Looking north east

Looking west along the south of the church

East view with spire

The tower & spire

Phone view of the church

Entrance in the base of the tower

Spire from over the wall

The churchyard with church in the background

The churchyard the headstones looked almost lost in the dry grass which has been cut

Old headstones

Lonely tomb

Looking to the east of the churchyard

Over to look north

And southeast

The churchyard is quite large and surprisingly cut, shame the grass is so dry

This monument stood out with the lamb on it

Commonwealth war grave of Private J Witney

Return visit and the door is open

Commemoration plaque

There are various dates on this but I do not know what they represent

Inside looking down the aisle

In the chancel

Altar

Triple east window

The organ

Pulpit

The view out of the pulpit

Lectern cum desk

Back through the nave

At the back the rolls of honour and photos of past vicars

The glass topped cabinet shows a name of one of the fallen from Tetsworth

These are rolls of service from both wars, if you look close you see a cross next to a person who did not come home. The village war memorial is opposite the village green at the bottom of the hill