1330 AD - Father Thomas de Stodham Consecration of St. Giles Church, Sheldon

There has been a church here for well over a hundred years but the first building was of wattle and mud - mud from the stream and wattle from the forest which is all around us; and the church has been falling into decay for some time.

I have been Rector of the Parish since 1318 and am thrilled with the new church. It stands on a stone base with a lovely new wooden structure above and a wooden shingle roof. There is a little tower to house the bell which calls the people to prayer and is rung at the most sacred moment when I am celebrating Mass so those working in the fields know when to kneel and join in prayer.

By the church door we have put an old carved cross which has been preserved carefully. We think it may be from the tomb of one of the first Saxon Christian priests in the parish.

The old church was dedicated to Our Lady (Mary) but we have added St. Giles who was a hermit of about 600 years ago, living in the forests of Southern France. We chose him because he lived in the middle of a forest just as we do.

His story is interesting. He lived with a white deer as a pet and one day the King was hunting near the cave where he slept. Seeing the white deer the king aimed an arrow but hit Giles by mistake. When he heard more about the holiness of the man he had injured he built a monastery there and persuaded Giles to become its first abbot.

The abbey became famous and after his death the Pope made Giles a saint. He has become known as the Patron Saint of the physically handicapped, of beggars, of those struck by sudden misfortune and of woodlands - mainly because these were the groups of people he helped most of all.

The first Head-teacher of Sheldon Heath School took the badge of St. Giles and adopted it for the school. The emblems are the white deer called a white hind, the arrow fired by the King and the Crosier which was the symbol St. Giles carried as the leader of a monastery.