Church Heritage Record 614148

West tower, nave, chancel, north vestry and south porch.

Chancel 19’ x 17’6’’; Nave 52’6’’ N and 54’ S x 19’; W tower 10’9’’ x 10’.

As the site of a church since at least the eleventh century the church and its churchyard have considerable archaeological potential. Prehistoric remains, Roman coins and medieval remains have also been made in the vicinity.

Many burials in the open churchyard, and some evidence for intramural burial. Considerable archaeological potential of church and churchyard. Mature trees and shrubs on all sides, including a majestic cedar (taller than the tower) by the S door and yews E with badger setts beneath. Butterfly wings in the tower may indicate the presence of bats.

The church is likely to be of pre-Norman foundation: the Victoria County History records that when in 1092 the house of Austin Canons, which later became Barnwell Priory, was founded its endowments included Tadlow church. The advowson of the vicarage established by 1275 remained with Barnwell until the dissolution, and thence from the Castells to the Downings, and after 1800 to Downing College, still patron in the 1970s. The church was formerly dedicated to St John the Baptist but was dedicated to St Giles by 1748.

On Christmas Day in 1638 the congregation at Tadlow was prevented from taking communion by a dog stealing the sacrament from the holy table: “for that in the sermon time the dog of William Staple came to the communion table (which stood without any rail or enclosure before it) and leaping up took the loaf of bread prepared for the sacrament and ran away with it in its mouth which although some of the parishioners took from the dog and set it again upon the table, yet the vicar … thought not meet to consecrate that bread” (Lambeth Palace MS 943, p.616, quoted by Sharpe (1992) p.341). The incident was publicised by supporters of Archbishop Laud as evidence of the need for returning communion tables to the east ends of churches and enclosing them within rails.

The nineteenth-century restorer of the church, William Butterfield, was a pioneer of Victorian Gothic architecture and particularly of the use of ‘structural polychromy’, whereby colour was introduced to a building via construction in a variety of materials, rather than being subsequently applied. Butterfield is widely considered one of the most important architects of the nineteenth century.

W tower C15 (finished by 1472, when a bequest was made for a spire), perpendicular, in three stages, out of alignment with the nave and chancel. Clasping buttresses to tower, W. W doorway in pointed arch with continuous moulding and square head having dagger tracery to the spandrels. Several small window openings, and large W window of two cinquefoil lights in four centred arch with label; bell stage has two similar openings in four centred arch. Clock face to middle stage, S. Top of tower has a low parapet wall and a lead roof (a shallow pyramid) and is topped with a weather-vane.

Chancel and aisleless nave substantially C13. Angle buttresses to nave W and SE, and coped gables topped by cross finials to nave E and chancel. Two C13 lancets to nave, N; S wall refenestrated, c14-C15, three windows of two cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery in depressed arch. S lancets to chancel, and E window with three graduated lancets, inserted by Butterfield in his restoration of 1859-66 (E wall rebuilt  String course runs beneath chancel windows N and S, stepping up to run beneath E window.

S porch by Butterfield: coped S gable, weathered angle buttresses, plinth, hoodmould to doorway. Porch now encloses C13 S doorway: two centred arch with two orders of colonnettes and a fine arch moulding with one keeled and one unkeeled roll, now enclosed within S porch. Vestry projects to NE of nave, with lancets E and W and square-topped chimney projecting from roof. Blocked-up doorway with hoodmould to N side of nave, with a boiler chimney by Butterfield above.

The roofs date from Buttefield’s restoration: nave roof of five bays, with braced collar trusses with spandrel brackets; chancel has a canted boarded ceiling, with painted decoration by Harland & Fisher to the rafters and wall plate.  Beneath the wall plate is a band of decorated tiles that runs across the east wall and into the splayed reveals of the E window.

Red and black quarry tiles to floor of nave aisle, with cast-iron ventilation grilles; wooden pew platforms. Checkerboard pattern in red and black quarry tiles and stone to floor of chancel; polychrome tiles to floor of sanctuary and altar platform. Pattern of red and black tiles and stone in floor of S porch.  Worn effigial slab set in nave floor in front of S porch. Two steps up at chancel arch, a further step at communion rail, and an altar platform of a single step.

The nave and chancel walls are plastered and painted white. Thin strips of red tile run horizontally around the walls, including into the window reveals; the E wall incorporates vertical tile strips and polychrome tiles, and a reredos with geometric patterns in coloured tile and marble. The S windows are framed by sawtooth decoration to the plaster; the top of the E window and nave N windows are framed by a strip of red tiles.

Two centred tower arch of two chamfered orders, the inner on engaged shaft with moulded capital and base; similar arches to chancel and (lower) to vestry in N wall. Above pulpit is the rear arch of a blocked lancet, with sawtooth surround.

The font is in the base of the tower. In the NE corner of the tower is a low doorway with a Tudor arch, with a nail-studded C16 or C17 door leading to a spiral staircase to the clock chamber and bell-chamber, and thence via a ladder and roof-hatch to the tower leads. The tower staircase and doorway feature much carved graffiti.