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St. Giles' Church in Wigginton, built of the local ironstone, comprises chancel, nave, aisles, western tower, and porch set at an angle at the west end of the north aisle. The only surviving feature earlier than the 13th century is a Romanesque capital reused as a corbel supporting the westernmost truss of the roof of the south aisle. The nave and aisles date from the 13th century, but the bases and capitals of the north arcade are earlier in character than those of the south. Both aisles are lit by lancet windows, arranged in grouped triplets. The original chancel arch has been replaced, but on the north side the newel stairs to the rood loft remain. A piscina indicates that there was formerly an altar at the east end of the south aisle.

Early in the 14th century the chancel was rebuilt, with the exception of the chancel arch, which survived until the 19th-century alterations. There are 'low-side' windows at the west end of both walls. Immediately to the west of the one on the south side there is a stone seat with an ogee-arched canopy, crocketed and decorated with ball-flower ornament. It is possible that this seat once surmounted the sedilia on the south side of the sanctuary, which shows signs of mutilation. Externally the chancel was decorated with a cornice with ball-flower ornament, which appears to have been re-sited later when a clerestory was added. Parker, writing in 1850, reported that there was a Decorated cornice 'stilted up above the Perpendicular clerestory'. The cornice was restored to its original position during the restoration of 1870–1. The unbuttressed west tower dates from the late 14th or early 15th century. In the 15th century clerestories were added to both nave and chancel. In 1584 the churchwardens were cited because the church was 'in decay', but as they replied that it was under repair and would be finished in three weeks no extensive structural changes may have been involved. Repairs were needed again in 1668, when the churchwardens were threatened with excommunication for not repairing the body of the church, and in 1671, when dissatisfaction with the progress of the work led to the substitution of new ones.

The churchwardens' accounts show that the fabric was in need of constant attention throughout the 18th century: in 1734 and 1735 repairs, particularly to the porch, were carried out. The sundial on the tower was put up in 1745. In 1755 the churchwardens were ordered to have the south-east side of the church wall repaired and pointed, to have the south door mended and the porch paved, and to carry out many other minor repairs: this work appears to have been carried out in 1757– 65, but there were many other small payments to the plumber and the carpenter in 1770 and 1790. In the period 1787–97 in particular repairs were being carried out on the roof and south aisle. Between 1798 and 1807 about £100 was paid out for repairs. In 1808 a new gallery was erected and the church was re-paved. In 1809 there were plans for completing the re-seating of the church and in 1811 a new font was purchased. A new pulpit and a new desk staircase were included in the estimate for repairs. 

The church appears to have been unheated before 1856. By 1870 the building was 'in rapid decay' and the south aisle in particular had become unsafe. It was said that the chancel could not safely be touched unless the south aisle and the chancel arch were also repaired. Plans for restoration were made by William White of London. George Anthony of Waddesdon (Bucks.) was employed as builder and the church was re-opened in 1871 after the most urgent part of the work, the repair of the south aisle and chancel, had been completed. The chancel clerestory was removed and a high-pitched roof was added. The builder is alleged to have taken advantage of the rector's illness and to have done the work so badly that the south aisle had to be repaired again in 1873–4. The second part of the work was carried out in 1886 by the architect J. L. Pearson. During the restoration all interior plaster was removed so that any mural paintings there may have been were destroyed. 

A 19th-century pulpit (replaced in 1935), communion rails, and a communion table were probably installed at the time of the restoration work, but the early-19th-century pews were retained and two of the ancient bench ends, re-used in 1809–11, have therefore been preserved. The previous communion table is preserved in the south aisle. New nave pews were installed in 1963 in memory of W. Osborne Smith, churchwarden 1952–62. An organ, designed by Norman & Beard of London, was obtained in 1913 and electric light was installed in 1934.

There are two medieval monuments in the chancel, in arch recesses, which have been obscured by the raising of the chancel floor and the insertion of benches. The recumbent knight now on the north side was originally lying on a black marble gravestone on the south side and a stone coffin with a cross on it, described by Rawlinson as on the north side, has been destroyed. The effigy of a recumbent man with two small female figures, one on either side, now in the southern recess, was fixed to the outside of the south aisle in the early 18th century. The ledger stone to John Blount (d. 1699/1700) is now only just identifiable.

A few fragments of old glass remain in the chancel windows. The stained glass in the east window was designed by A. L. Moore of London in 1909. 

There is a silver chalice of c. 1670. 

Of the 3 bells one was formerly dated 1631, but the present ones were recast in the 18th and 19th centuries. There is a clock of mid-17th-century date, arranged to strike the hours on the tenor bell. It has been disused since the 1920s. 

The registers are complete from 1558. The other parish records are kept in a handsome parish chest, bought in 1796. The earlier, 16th-century, chest is also preserved in the church

Historical information about The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary is provided by 'Parishes: Wigginton', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 9, Bloxham Hundred, ed. Mary D Lobel and Alan Crossley (London, 1969), pp. 159-170. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol9/pp159-170 [accessed 23 February 2023].

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Grade I listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF SAINT GILES, Wigginton - 1052175 | Historic England.

For more information about The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary see Parishes: Wigginton | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).