St. Giles' Church
Beautiful Grade One listed Medieval Church with box pews
St. Giles', the Parish Church of Stoke Poges, dates from Saxon times with remains still existing in part of the Chancel Wall and windows There are parts still surviving from three later periods, Norman (1086) the pillars, part of the Chancel and part of the Tower; Early Gothic (1220) the nave reconstructed on the Norman pillars and Tudor (1558) the Hastings Chapel, built in red-brick.
The Church and Churchyard were formerly enclosed within the grounds of Stoke Park, 200 yards away from the old Manor House, hence their remoteness from the centre of the village.
Many notable people who occupied the Stoke Park Mansion supported the Church. The Chancel contains the tomb of Sir John de Molyns, Marshal of the King’s Falcons and Supervisor of the King’s Castles. Sir John founded the Chantry in 1338 and it contains a Piscina with two basins, a rare feature.
Originally the bells were rung from the floor of the tower. Mr John Penn made this into a Manor House pew in 1800 and constructed a ringing chamber immediately above it. Since 1924 the bells have been rung from a higher storey in the tower, accessed from an external staircase.
The Hastings Chapel was built in red brick with stone mullioned windows in 1558. Lord Hastings of Loughborough, son of the first Earl of Huntingdon, founded an alms house in 1557 and built the Chapel to serve as its oratory, also as his burial-place and for other members of the Hastings family.
There are some interesting windows. One known as the 'Bicycle Window' is made up of fragments of glass, one piece of which is dated from 1643, as a memorial to those who fell in the Second World War. It is not possible to deduce the original complete design. Another pair of windows commemorates the death of a small child belonging to the Howard-Vyse family. They show the child leaving its earthly mother and being accepted by its heavenly mother. There are fine stained glass coats of arms in the Hastings chapel, dating back to the Elizabethan period. They are believed to have been brought over from the adjacent Manor House when much of it was demolished by John Penn.
There are nineteen funeral hatchments in excellent condition hanging on the walls, the most in one place in Buckinghamshire. They relate to some of the major people who have lived in the parish many centuries ago.
The tomb of Thomas Gray is outside immediately below the east window of the Hastings Chapel. A tablet on the wall also records that he is buried in the tomb since the top of the tomb only records his mother and aunt in it. Gray died at Pembroke College, Cambridge and requested to be buried next to his mother.
