St. Giles, Bredon, Worcestershire

Description

The parish church of St. Giles, originally erected in the latter half of the 12th century, is a building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south chapel, north aisle with porch, and a central embattled tower, with an exceedingly light and graceful spire 160 feet in height and containing 5 bells: the nave, porch and south-west and north doorways are Norman, the chapel Early English and the remainder of the church Decorated, the Norman work being particularly good and in excellent preservation: the west front is flanked by square turrets with pyramidal stone cappings: the porch has a parvise, without, at present, any means of access; the lower part is groined ; both the porch doorway and the other entrances on the south, west and north have the chevron ornament; there are the remains of a piscina in the nave: the chancel retains a piscina and triple sedilia, and behind the piscina a low side window; on the north side of the chancel is a tomb without inscription, under a richly ornamented and crocketed arch, and east of it an aumbry: placed upright against the south wall is a singular monument, circ. 14th cent. formerly in the Mitton chapel, and discovered some years since in the flooring face downward; it represents a crucifix, above which are the busts of a man and his wife under canopies, and is supposed to belong to the Reede family: the tower is separated from the nave by a low wooden screen, and across the chancel arch there was formerly a painted and gilt rood loft: there are several ancient monuments, one of which, at the west end of the chapel, is a gorgeous and costly memorial to Giles Reed esq, and Katherine, (Greville) his wife, both of whom died in 1611; it is of black marble, cased with alabaster, and has recumbent effigies of both under a richly ornamented canopy, near which is suspended a helmet; there are also kneeling figures of their children, and the whole is profusely decorated with various architectural devices, heightened with colour and gilding: in the chancel, under a slab of black marble, with brasses exhibiting a mitre and shield of arms, lie the remains of Dr. John Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester (1641-50), who died here at the house of his son-in-law, Dr. Henry Sutton, July 20, 1650: there are 300 sittings, 150 being free: in the churchyard is a high coped tomb and a monumental cross profusely enriched with the ball-flower ornament.

Church Records

The register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1559; marriages, 1562.