II.

THE CHURCH OF ST. GILES AND THE

HOSPITAL.

Of the church of St. Giles the records are meagre indeed. There is little but the founding of the original building, its re-founding in the fourteenth century, and the tombs within the sanctuary, to which any certain history belongs.

About the year 1107 Hugh de Stoke and his wife joined with Aluredus, the priest of Stoke, to make over the church and tithes of the parish of Stoke and Ditton for ever to the Priory of St. Mary Overy, in Southwark. The charter is witnessed by William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester, who died 1128-1129. In 1107 William had founded the first Cistercian house in England, of which the remains are still visible in the lovely valley of Waverley, near Farnham, in Surrey. St. Giles was the eighth church so appropriated by the abbey, nor is there any reason to suppose that it was then a new building. But of this twelfth or eleventh century building there are apparently no remains, unless it be in the north wall of the chancel, in which is a blocked-up Norman window, but into the outside wall of which is built a fragmentary capital, which may more reasonably claim to have been part of this early church.

The name of the de Molines family is connected with all that we can guess of the building of the later church; nor is it improbable that the beautiful four

teenth century tomb in the north wall of the chancel was built for one of this name, although it is by no means evident that the fabric of the north wall is of

C

the same date. However, the position of the tomb makes it probable that its occupant had a large share in building the church. In 1331 Sir John Molines and his wife Egidia obtained a charter empowering

him to hold a fair on St. Giles's Day; and as such parish fairs were always headed by the founder of the church or his representative, and as we find Sir John performing this duty, it seems probable that he refounded the church, especially as his date agrees with