Church Of St Margaret

The Church of St. Margaret is a parish church with origins dating to 1749. A tower was added in 1853, the chancel in 1864, and significant remodelling occurred in 1878 by Austin, Johnson and Hicks, as noted by a brass panel within the tower. The 1853 and 1864 construction was funded by public subscription, with substantial contributions from local figures.

The church is built of sandstone ashlar with plinths and quoins, topped with graduated Lakeland slate roofing, stone gable copings, and a Welsh slate roof over the north tower vestry. The west tower is adjoined by a north vestry, and the church features an aisled nave and a chancel with a north organ chamber and vestry. The tower’s entrance has double boarded doors with elaborate hinges and a lift-scutcheon latch, set under a fanlight within a moulded, shafted round-headed arch. An inscription displaying the date sits above, with a tall shouldered light above that and 2-light shouldered belfry openings under a corbel table and battlemented parapet. The west front of the tower features a tall, shafted round-headed window with paired round-headed lights and plate tracery, above a clock. The nave has 4 bays with 2-light square-headed Perpendicular windows, replacing earlier 18th-century round-headed windows of which traces remain, and an impost band. The chancel contains lancet windows, with three stepped lancets to the east, and buttresses between the bays. A date panel is visible on the nave below the impost band, accompanied by a sundial with a gnomon. The roof is continuous over the aisles, with stone cross finials, and a wrought iron vane atop the tower. A wrought iron foot-scraper is also present.

Inside, the walls are finished with painted plaster above a panelled dado, with painted ashlar dressings. The chancel is panelled, and the nave features a flat, panelled roof supported by corbelled wall-posts. The chancel roof is low-pitched and also panelled, featuring Tudor-flower freizes. Triple-chamfered 2-centred arcades rise without capitals from round columns, with similar-style arches to the chancel and tower. A Perpendicular-style rood screen and a communion rail with fat twist balusters are also present, along with a carved wood altar in Gothic style, featuring three medallions and four apostle figures. A Romanesque piscina is located in the north wall. A Gothic organ, dating from 1907, was built by Walker. A raised font, constructed from Frosterley, Devonian, and white marble, features an octagonal bowl on a pedestal and four shafts, commemorating Queen Victoria's golden jubilee. A font cover is inscribed to T. Duncombe Eden, who died in 1899. Geometrical stained glass with figures is found in the chancel, dated 1864; later glass is in the aisles, with one window signed with a mark of a mailed hand and ribbon. Monuments present include 17th-century heraldic slabs to members of the Tempest and Ripon families; a white marble mourning figure and sarcophagus with a portrait medallion on the north aisle wall, dedicated to Dorothea Melden Eden by Bedford of London; and a broken column in the south aisle to George Rippon by Jopling of Newcastle.