St. Giles, exterior
Photo © S. Alsford
St. Giles on the Hill stands tall – its tower, at 113 feet, being the tallest of any parish church in Norwich – on the highest point in the medieval city (85 feet above sea level), on the road called Newport, which led from the (relatively) new addition of the French settlement out beyond the western boundary of the borough. St. Giles was built in 1136, but there seems to have been a church on the site before the French borough was established. The dedication is to the patron saint of the poor and marginalized, which may connect with the presence of a leper house just outside St. Giles Gate.
St. Giles, interior
Photos © S. Alsford
The present church dates from the 1420s, except for the porch (Tudor) and the chancel, built in the nineteenth century, the original having been pulled down in 1581.