History

The story of St Giles’ is lovely and unusual.

The first St. Giles’ was built on this site around 1200 AD. The yew trees in the churchyard have been dated from this time and were probably planted at the time the first church was established. This makes them some 800 years old. The building you see today dates from circa 1538 AD. It is the second church building on the site and was constructed using the stones from nearby Snelshall Priory, (which was demolished by Henry VIII,) after the first St. Giles’ fell wholly into decay.

Beyond the churchyard in the meadow is the site of the lost village of Tattenhoe. The village disappeared without any records; the reason for its disappearance is not known.

After the Norman Conquest, land at Tattenhoe was given by William the Conqueror to three of his Lords, Earl Hugh of Chester, Richard Ingania and Urse de Bersers. By 1167 ownership of both Tattenhoe and Snelshall had passed to Sybil d’Aungerville. She granted these lands at Snelshall to the Benedictine monks of Lavendon, to start a religious community - Snelshall Priory. Sybil d’Aungerville’s grandson Ralph Martel gave some more of his land at Tattenhoe in 1216 to the lands already given to Snelshall Priory. Over 100 donations were given to the Priory during the following 100 years, some of these large, including the donations of the fishponds around St Giles’.

In 1538 Henry VIII ordered Snelshall Priory to be closed and demolished. Some of the stones were transported and used to rebuild St Giles’. Parts of today’s St Giles’ are still recognisable as part of an earlier building - including the archway of the main door and the base of our font.

For hundreds of years, until the late 1980s the parish of Tattenhoe comprised only three buildings, the farmhouses of Tattenhoe Bare, Tattenhoe Hall and Howe Park Farms. St Giles’ stood alone in the fields, surrounded by dense woods, fields, livestock and crops. For 460 years St Giles’ was kept open for worship by the families living at the three farms and by worshippers from neighbouring villages including Whaddon, Newton Longville, Shenley and Loughton. They walked across the fields on summer Sunday evenings to make sure the church stayed in use for worship and for future generations. The stained glass window in the church dates to 1919. 

The only way for worshippers to reach St Giles’ was via footpaths through fields. In the days before Milton Keynes this was a popular outing for local people, to come to services here. The most popular service was Harvest Festival — which we still celebrate today, with fruit, vegetables, and home-made produce and an auction of afterwards! There was no road to the church until the late 1950s, when the farmer at Howe Park Farm built a long, narrow single track from the Whaddon Road to his farm, and allowed worshippers to use this private track as an access to the church. This remained the way to the Church - through an unmarked farm gate - until the end of 1990s, when Portishead Drive and today’s car park were built. The route of this old track is now the redway that runs from Hengistbury Lane north through Westcroft.

In 1996 work started on the first foundations of the houses of new Tattenhoe around the church. The vision of generations had been realised and the people had returned! In late 1999 the Churchwardens invited Immanuel, a new congregation within the Watling Valley Ecumenical Partnership, to hold weekly services at St. Giles. These services have now expanded to include a monthly Children's Church, and a variety of Cell groups.

Recently there has been extensive redecoration of the Church, with the walls repainted and the pews and other woodwork grained in traditional style. The next phase of this is to install electricity, primarily to provide background heating which will reduce damage caused by damp. As the building is Grade 2* listed there will be considerable restrictions on the style and type of work carried out, and care is needed to avoid disturbing the wildlife in the area.

This photo shows the Church following the redecoration. To the right are three box pews, each of which was used by the families owning the three local farms. The pews immediately in front of the camera would then be used by the senior staff and others, whilst the benches at the back of the Church would be occupied by the "peasantry".