CHIDEOCK ST GILES
Welcome to our parish church. As with so many, it is all but impossible to say how old the church is. This is because the present building has evolved over several hundred years. What you see as you come into the church today is the church pretty much as the Victorians left it after the restoration of 1884-85.
Much of the stonework is much older. The oldest part of the church is the nave, the main body of the church, which dates from the 13th century (the 1200s). There was then, presumably, a chancel too (where the altar stands). The present chancel was rebuilt in the l880s.
In the 14th century (the 1300s), the north transept (where the organ now stands) was added. This appears to have been a private chapel for the lords of the manor. There used to be a doorway (by the side of the present pulpit) which would have given access across the churchyard to the castle. The 15th century saw further building: the south aisle, the Arundell chapel, the tower, and the porch were all added.
The Arundell Chapel stands at the head of the south aisle. The Arundell family were lords of the manor of Chideock from 1450 to 1802. They inherited Chideock by marriage; and, in 1802, the then Lord Arundell sold the estate to his cousin, Thomas Weld, from whom the present Welds of Chideock Manor are descended. There has been a remarkable family continuity, associated with the village over some seven centuries - and it is pleasant that this church has within it a link with the great families which have owned the manor. The Arundells (from Lanherne, Cornwall) were a famous Catholic family, remaining loyal to the old religion at the Reformation. Under the influence of the Arundells (and then the Weld family), Chideock became and has remained a centre of Catholic worship. The manor, half a mile a1ong North Road towards North Chideock, includes a splendid chapel which has been used, until very recently, for public worship. This houses in an anti-room a village museum. It is there that you can find information about the 16th-17th century Chideock martyrs, Roman Catholic priests, who came to Chideock Castle and who were betrayed or captured and subsequently put to death.
To return to the Arundell Chapel, it contains a splendid 15th century marble tomb and effigy of a recumbent knight. This is thought to be one of the De Chideocke family, the ancestors of the Arundells.
The church acquired a new organ in 1892. This was sited in the chapel. For over 70 years, the organ thus obscured an important part of the church's history. In the mid-1960s, the organ was moved to its present position and the chapel was restored and refurnished. It was formally re dedicated by the Bishop of Salisbury on 20th July 1969.
On the north wall of the nave hang two pictures which give some idea of the look of the church about the year 1850. The wedding scene shows the outside staircase, to the old gallery which then housed choir and band. This gallery was removed in mid-century when a harmonium was installed. An old bassoon (our only relic of the former band) hangs by the tower. A close look at the stonework at the rear of the church shows where the gallery used to be.
The tower contains a belfry with a peal of 5 bells. The oldest, cast in 1602, has a freak inscription: "Love Dog". It should, of course, read "Love God", but the letters were accidentally transposed in the casting.
The most recent bell was cast in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Ten years later the clock was erected at the old queen's Diamond Jubi1ee. Oddly, the clock, though housed in the church, belongs to the civil parish council - and the council pays for the winding and the upkeep.
The windows of the church are worth more than a casual glance. Unfortunately, two are now lost to view behind the organ. The others in the church depict Christ raising the dead; the presentation of the infant Christ in the temple; and the Ascension. Just behind the pulpit is a small window depicting St Giles.
St Giles, the church's patron saint, is one of those saints about whom we know very little. He is always associated with beggars and wayfarers (as their patron). He became a popular saint in the Middle Ages. Ours is one of, at least 200 churches country-wide bearing his name. His feast
day is kept on 1st September.
The font (by the door to symbolize entry into the Christian life) is medieval -14th or 15th century. Its cover is much more recent in origin.
As with so many churches, ours has been enriched by individual gifts from parishioners. As you walk round the church, notice the splendid brass lectern, the litany desk {by the pulpit), the handsome carpet in the Arundell chapel, the various ornaments attached to the walls especially the painting by Mr John Jowitt which hangs by the tower. The heating, installed in 1987, was paid for by parishioners joining in a common endeavour.
The first guide to the church of which we now know (the date is 1880} refers to the bad state of repair into which the church had lal1en, with leaking roofs and dilapidated furnishings. Much loving care, time, and money has been lavished on the church since those not-so-distant days.
The church is set in its churchyard. This was closed to further burials nearly 70 years ago. In the 1920s the church acquired a detached burial ground, some 300 yards west of the church on the main road. In the early 1970s, when the main road was widened, several graves were removed from the front of the church to the burial ground. This explains why, among all the burials from the 1920s onwards, you suddenly come across memorials from the mid-19th century.
While registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials in this country were first introduced in 1538, our earliest surviving such register dates from 1654; and it is a sadness that the previous register no longer exists. In 1836, an act of Parliament introduced the civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths. The act came into force in 1837 when all parishes were issued with the now familiar green marriage registers. Chideock register had space for 500 entries. By 1984, when the book was deposited in the County Record Office, along with all our older records, we had reached some 416 marriages. Many of the first signatories could not write and signed with a cross 'his/her mark'.
Among other records of interest are a good run of churchwardens' accounts from 1766, the minute book of the Restoration Committee 1879-1885, and a scrapbook, kept by the vicar at the end of the 19th century. This is a splendid hotchpotch of newspaper cuttings and personal observations.