St Giles & St Nicholas, Sidmouth
St Giles & St Nicholas, Sidmouth
St Giles with St Nicholas is the Grade II* parish church on Church Street, Sidmouth, Devon, in the Diocese of Exeter. It retains a late-medieval west tower; the rest was rebuilt in 1859–60 by William White.
- Location
- Sidmouth, Devon
- Country
- England
- County
- Devon
- City / town
- Sidmouth
- Address
- Church Street, Sidmouth, Devon, EX10 8LG
- Postcode
- EX10 8LG
- Built
- Medieval Perpendicular tower; remainder rebuilt 1859–60
- Architect
- William White; reredos by S S Teulon
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Giles and Nicholas
- Diocese
- Exeter
- Parish
- Sidmouth
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- High Victorian Gothic; medieval Perpendicular tower
- Materials
- Local limestone with Bath stone dressings; slate roofs
- Grid reference
- SY 125 873
- Opening hours
- 8am to 6pm daily.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England records a medieval Perpendicular tower and a High Victorian body of local limestone with Bath stone dressings and slate roofs. The plan is west tower, nave, north and south aisles, porches, transepts, chancel aisles and east vestries. The three-stage tower has set-back buttresses and a small polygonal stair turret to the battlements. White’s wide south aisle has steep gables and distinctive High Victorian tracery. Nave and aisle arcades have quatrefoil piers with dark marble shafts; foliage capitals were designed by the local antiquary Peter Orlando Hutchinson.
Fixtures include a reredos by S. S. Teulon, a polygonal stone pulpit, and an octagonal font with a tall pinnacled timber cover. Mid-Victorian glass includes the east window by William Wailes (1860) and the west window by Hughes (1867), given by Queen Victoria in memory of her father, the Duke of Kent, who died at Sidmouth in 1820. Devon HER notes an original dedication in 1295 and that fragments of the earlier fabric were preserved by Hutchinson. The interior was reordered in 2009.