St Giles' Church, Imber, Wiltshire

Address:
Imber, Warminster, Wiltshire
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For the most up to date visiting hours please visit: www.imberchurch.org.uk/events.html
  • An interesting 13th-century church standing in rolling downland deep inside the military training area of Salisbury Plain, St Giles' is situated in a ghost village, evacuated by the Army in 1943.
  • The Corsham stone tower at St Giles' was under construction in 1400. It is finely executed and has the rare distinction of five pinnacles – the fifth above the stair turret. 
     
  • The nave arcades are decorated with a 13th-century chequerboard pattern embellished with flowers, tendrils and small quatrefoils.
     
  • Whilst the Norman font is now at Brixton Deverill, the 19th-century base remains in situ. Along the north wall, the 15th-century paintings form two main subjects: on the left of the door Avarice from the Seven Deadly Sins; on the right the weighing of souls.
  • The chancel was rebuilt in 1849. An eagle lectern at St Giles' commemorates the Revd William Dyer (d. 1872), vicar of Imber for 24 years and ledger slabs in the nave floor commemorate Sarah Harris who died in 1663 and John Wadman who died in 1688.
  • The plain changes painted on the wall of the tower are for five bells, and dated 1692. The five bells were removed from the tower in 1950 and only the third bell from this set - dated 1721 - survives in a ring of ten bells at nearby Edington. A new ring of six bells was installed at St Giles' in 2010.
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A church left over from a ghost village

This lovely thirteenth-century church stands in rolling downland deep inside the military training area of Salisbury Plain. It is all that remains of the ghost village of Imber (now just abandoned houses), which was evacuated for military training purposes in 1943.

The distinctive fourteenth-century tower has five pinnacles. The interior, divested of its fittings, allows you to appreciate the architecture and atmosphere of this unique church, as well as the remains of medieval wallpaintings with a rare depiction of the Seven Deadly Sins, and a set of seventeenth-century bell ringing changes painted on the north wall of the tower.

Outside the sloping churchyard contains fine seventeenth and eighteenth-century tomb chests.

This church is only open occasionally to visitors. For more information, please visit: http://www.imberchurch.org.uk

St Giles' church features in our Wiltshire Medieval Graffiti Tour on Google Earth. 

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