St Giles' Church, Oxford

The church was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was recorded that the owner of the land north of the city intended to build a Norman church there. The church was built for one Edwin, son of Godegose and finished in 1120. In 1139, Edwin granted the church and all its property to the then newly created Benedictine Godstow Abbey, 2 mi to the northwest. St Giles' Church is 550 yard north of the old Oxford city wall, and when built it stood in open fields. There were no other buildings between it and the city wall, where the St Michael at the North Gate church stands. About a thousand people lived within the walls of Oxford at this time. The church was not actually…

Oxford has expanded over time, so St Giles' church is now relatively central within the city. As north Oxford was built up and its population grew, new parishes were created out of parts of St Giles'. They included St Philip and St James', consecrated in 1862 and St Margaret's, consecrated as a daughter church of SS. Philip and James in 1883. St Giles remains a separate ecclesiastical parish but is now reunited with the parish of St Philip and St James with St Margaret in a united benefice.