St Giles

Against the south wall of the tower is the façade of an earlier porch, with 1636 date tablet on the parapet, above a round-headed doorway with continuous moulding.

It has a 3-light window below a figure of St Giles in a niche, and in the east wall are two single-light windows with quatrefoil and trefoil tracery lights.

INTERIOR: The tower arch has polygonal responds, now obscured by the organ but probably C14.

The chancel retains a north aumbry, probably a medieval feature that survived the 1859 rebuilding.

The tower stair turret retains an original ribbed door with strap hinges and beneath the tower arch is a head boss from a medieval roof.

The floor is laid with stone paving, except for raised floorboards below pews, and marble tiles in the chancel.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The octagonal font is a tall tub-shape, with ribs and a frieze of lobes below the rim, of late C12 or early C13.

It has an unusual octagonal base decorated with carvings, including a heart and another figure, but badly weathered.

It may not have been made as a font base.

The polygonal wooden pulpit is by Advent Hunstone of Tideswell , carved with a scene in high-relief of Jesus calling upon the disciples, and figures of SS Paul and John.

Clergy and choir stalls are also by Hunstone, to the designs of W.N. Statham Priests' stalls are canopied and have frontals with ends carved with St Giles and the Good Shepherd.

Choir stalls have ends with blind tracery and figures on arm rests, in Suffolk style, and the rear tier have arm rests to each stall.

The chief memorial is an incised alabaster slab to Anthony Woolley , by the Royleys of Burton-upon-Trent.

There are several other C19 and C20 memorials, including a Gothic tablet to Capt W. Cumming, killed in 1813 in the Peninsula War.

There are C17 and C18 benefaction boards and board recording the erection of a gallery in 1724.

The south transept east window includes C14 German glass in the tracery lights,

there are fragments of C15 glass in the south aisle tracery, said to have come from Llanberis.

HISTORY: The medieval church of old Matlock.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The Church of St Giles, Matlock Town, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * For its well-preserved late medieval tower. * It has fixtures of special note, including the C12-C13 font

a C16 memorial slab. * The church is prominently sited in Matlock Town and stands at the heart of the medieval settlement.