St Giles Church, Willenhall

The original church is believed to have survived until 1748, by which time it had fallen into decay. It was described by Dr. Wilkes, a local antiquary, that the building was unsafe to allow people to congregate there. A new church was constructed in its place in 1750, In about 1850, it was decided that a new church should be sought and in a vestry meeting in 1853, W. D. Griffin, a Wolverhampton-based architect, provided designs to alter the church. It was decided that the scheme was too costly and Griffin was told to design a new church in the Gothic style. Construction commenced in 1866 and was completed the following year, with the entire scheme costing £6,700. It was consecrated by Dr.…

The church is faced in red sandstone and has a tiled roof. The church tower is located to the northwest and is 100 ft tall. It has angle buttresses and a parapet in the centre. The bell openings and west doorway to the tower are moulded. Inside, nave has four-bay arcades of pointed arches chamfered in two orders. The columns have foliated capitals and are of four clustered shafts, except for the eastern bay, which is wider and is separated from the others by a round column. The nave roof trusses have tie-beams, king-posts rising to the ridge, and arch-braces rising from the tie-beams to meet the king-posts below the ridge. The chancel arch is moulded. Between the south chapel and the…