St Giles in the Wood is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. It was never a manor of itself and the parish church only came into being in 1309 when licence was obtained from the Bishop of Exeter to build a chapel of ease, the church at Great Torrington being then considered too far for the convenience of the local inhabitants. The licence was obtained by Sir Richard Merton, who then held the advowson of Great Torrington. Benefactors to the new church, dedicated to St Giles the Hermit, included Sir William Herward of Dodscott, and a member of the Pollard family of Way, Barry of Winscott, de Stevenstone of Stevenstone, and Dynant of Whitesley. The parish church of St Giles was, until the rebuilding of 1863 by Hon. Mark Rolle of Stevenstone, of the Perpendicular-Gothic style, of which only the tower survives. Many monuments survived and were moved into the new church and include the monument and effigy of Thomas Chafe (d. 1648) of Dodscott, three monumental brasses, of Alenora Pollard (d. 1430), Margaret Rolle of Stevenstone (d. 1592) and a small brass of her husband John Rolle (d.1570). There exist also 19th- and 20th-century monuments to the Rolle family. At Winscott was the estate of the Risdons where was born Tristram Risdon, author of the Survey of Devonshire.