St Giles Church in Hartington dates back to the 13th century, although the tower is a later 15th century addition, built of red ashlar sandstone with set-back buttresses and battlements. There is also a most unusual double-storeyed porch which was added in the Middle Ages.

Hartington Church consists of a chancel, nave of three bays, aisles, transepts and a western tower which contains a clock and 3 bells. The church has four piscinae and there is a brass to Ann Ratcliffe (1770) and monuments to Sir Hugh Bateman of Hartington Hall who died on 8th January 1824 and to Richard Bateman of Middleton Hall who died in 1761.

A memorial window was erected in Hartington Church by John Sleigh in 1859, and the reredos of Derbyshire marble was erected in memory of a Mr Flint, whilst the stained glass east window of the south transept is a memorial to the Rev. Augustus Wirgman for as vicar of the parish for 19 years and to Jane Elizabeth his wife.

St Giles was restored by subscription in 1858 at a cost of nearly £1,000 and the bells were renewed in 1884.

The parish register dates from the year 1610 but until 1650 it is very incomplete and in a dilapidated state.

The huge parish belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster stretched from Alsop-en-le-Dale in the south to the moors north of Buxton, and was divided for convenience into quarters. (Hartington Town, Hartington Middle, Hartington Upper which included Burbage and Hartington Nether which included Biggin). These boundaries can still be seen on an OS map.

St Giles has some exceedingly ugly gargoyles, some still complete with their leaded downspouts.

Within the church is an unusual effigy of a lady thought to be Margaret de Ferrers, Countess of Derby, which probably dates from 1224. It was discovered during the restoration work of 1858 and appears as though the woman is in her coffin with only head and feet exposed.

Also to be seen within St Giles are medieval wall paintings depicting the 12 tribes of Israel.

Two bequests found in Hartington church records include that of Mary Flint who left an endowment of £4 a year for the church stove in winter and Thomas Bateman who in his will dated May 11th 1840 requested that £50 be spent on clothing to be distributed ‘among the deserving poor at Christmas’.