St Margarets Church

St Margaret’s Church is an Anglican church, now an arts centre, built between 1908 and 1909 and consecrated in 1910. The design is by Temple Moore. The west end was completed in 1964 by GG Pace, and is without the intended tower. It is an example of Gothic Revival architecture. The church is constructed of red brick with bands of coloured brick, gritstone dressings, ashlar and rendered brick internally, and has a slate roof.

The main body of the church, the nave, consists of four bays with a clerestory and cross-gabled aisles, featuring lancet windows. The east end has two tiers of three lancet windows. Central and outer entrances were added to the west end. Stepped buttresses are present, and there is a cross finial on the gable.

Inside, the church is high and spacious, with circular piers, moulded capitals, and pointed arches built of brick rendered to resemble stone. Timber rib-vaults cover the ceiling. Slender quatrefoil columns support transverse tunnel vaults to the aisles. Fine studded oak doors lead into the building, and the walkways have a floor of large red clay tiles, with boarded areas in between. A wooden pulpit with traceried sides and a sounding board is present, alongside an octagonal ‘Gothic’ font dated 1837 located in the southwest corner. At the east end, there is a stained-glass window depicting the crucifixion, dedicated to James Midgley of Burley, who died in 1908 and was a benefactor of the church. A wooden reredos has a carved and gilded frieze with angels. A brass tablet commemorates Henry Ingham Rhodes, who died in 1917 and was described as ‘a strenuous worker for the building of this church’.

A brass plaque in the south aisle records the church's dedication on 13 February 1909 by the Bishop of Richmond, and its consecration on 23 July 1910. A war memorial in Art Nouveau style is located in the north aisle, featuring a carved wooden frame with arched panels dated 1914 and 1918. The central panel has a wooden crucifix set against a blue enamelled sky with clouds and stars, with a brass plaque below bearing the inscription, ‘IHS/ REMEMBER/ O LORD IN/ THY PITY/ THESE THY/ SERVANTS/ WHO DIED/ FOR KING &/ COUNTRY IN/ THE GREAT/ WAR’. Lists of names are below enamelled plaques with wreaths, mosaic borders, and a plastered and painted wall depicting stylised garlands.

An original drawing by Temple Moore, from his address at ‘37 Old Queen St, Westminster’, shows the originally intended church with a massive five-stage west tower and possibly an apsidal chancel. Offices and a vicarage were planned to stand on the south side of the church, facing the road.