page_title: Horspath
section_title: Church of England
hierarchical_section_title: Horspath / Church and chapel / Church of England
caption_attribution_description: English: Church of England parish church of St Giles, Horspath, Oxfordshire: 15th century stone figure forming left label stop of tower arch
context_page_description: Horspath is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire about 3.5 miles east of the centre of Oxford, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,378.
context_section_description: The Church of England parish church of Saint Giles seems to have been built late in the 12th century. The Early English Gothic south aisle, including the south door and three and a half bay south arcade date from this period. From this time the east wall of the chancel had a trio of three stepped lancet windows. The early Decorated Gothic south transept was added late in the 13th or early in the 14th century as a chantry chapel. The south porch was added late in the 14th century.
  Around 1400 the present west tower and tower arch were built. The tower arch features two unusual almost life-size sculptures of human figures: one playing the bagpipes and the other showing an expression of amazement. Also in the 15th century the pitch of the nave roof was greatly reduced in typical Perpendicular Gothic style. Late in the 15th century, Perpendicular Gothic windows were inserted in both sides of the chancel and the north wall of the nave. The Perpendicular Gothic piscinae in the chancel and south transept are also 15th century.
  In the 18th century Magdalen College, Oxford and the Earl of Abingdon contributed to the building of a west gallery in the nave. By 1840 the east wall of the chancel was out of alignment so the chancel was demolished and rebuilt to designs by the architect HJ Underwood, who retained the Perpendicular Gothic side windows with their mediaeval stained glass but dispensed with the mediaeval roof and replaced the Early English east windows with a neo-Perpendicular one. A contemporary condemned this work as "wanton destruction".
  By 1849 the nave was dilapidated so in 1852 the clerestory and west gallery were removed, the north wall was rebuilt and the north transept was added. Once again Underwood was the architect. The work cost £800, of which Baker Morrell of the local Morrell brewing family and Magdalen College each paid £200. The church is a Grade II* listed building.
  By 1554 St. Giles' had three bells and by the 18th century it had five. It now has a ring of six bells plus a Sanctus bell. Of the current ring, the oldest is the fourth bell, which Joseph Carter of Reading, Berkshire cast in 1602. William Yare, also of Reading, cast the tenor bell in 1611. Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester cast the second and third bells in 1718. W&J Taylor of Loughborough, who from 1821 to 1854 had a bell-foundry in Oxford, cast the fifth bell in 1838. Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the treble bell in 1866. James Wells of Aldbourne, Wiltshire cast the Sanctus bell in 1811.
  St Giles' has a disused turret clock without a dial, the frame of which appears to be late 17th century.
  St Giles' has an Elizabethan silver chalice made in about 1569, a carved late Jacobean pulpit, and a number of monumental plaques. One of these, to James Salisbury of Bullingdon Green (who died in 1770), is elaborately decorated. Another is to the five children of Thomas and Esther Herbert, who died from a recurrence of the bubonic plague between 1686 and 1688. Esther, whose family founded New College, also died in 1688 aged 33. A ceramic statuette of Saint Giles made by a local potter in 1988 is in the south chapel.
  In 1451 the Crown granted the advowson to the Hospital of St John the Baptist outside the East Gate, Oxford. In 1456 the hospital was suppressed, and all its property granted to Magdalen College, Oxford, newly founded by William Waynflete. From then until 1950 the vicar of St Giles was always a member of the college. George Wilkynson, who was incumbent from 1483, was Dean of Divinity of the University of Oxford.
  Many vicars of St Giles were distinguished fellows of the College, but some of the post-Reformation ones neglected the parish. Richard Byfield, who was incumbent from 1666, was a scholar of Hebrew. Baptist Levinz, who was incumbent 1680–82, became Bishop of Sodor and Man in 1685. George Horne, who was incumbent 1760–64, became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1776 and Bishop of Norwich in 1790. Edward Ellerton, who was incumbent from 1814, founded Horspath parish school and left land in the parish
caption: St Giles' parish church: 15th century carved stone figure of a man expressing amazement, forming the left label stop of the tower arch
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