Church of St Margaret

The Church of St. Margaret is a church built between 1877 and 1883 by architect J. L. Pearson, with the spire completed in 1902 by J. B. Frazer. It is constructed of coursed squared sandstone and has a slate roof. This large and prominent building is designed in the Early English style, featuring stepped lancet windows and corner turrets.

The church has a five-bay nave with stepped triple-lancets in the clerestorey, all set within 2-centred-arched surrounds. The west end includes angle buttresses that terminate in short octagonal turrets topped with squat pinnacles, and a west window comprised of five high-set tall lancets. The low buttressed aisles have small lancets and gabled porches at the first bay. The south porch, accessed by three steps, features angle buttresses, a recessed 2-centred-arched doorway with a 2-centred arch supported by shafts and two orders of moulding, and a carved apex cross. The north porch is similar but has two orders of chamfer.

The tall three-stage tower, which incorporates a south-east stair turret, has a tall 2-light window on the first stage, with two small lancets on each face of the second stage. The very tall belfry stage contains two large louvred lancets on each side, all featuring three orders of chamfer and set in recessed panels with deeply weathered sills and carved corbels above. The tower is topped with a broach spire that has lucarnes on three levels.

On the north side of the nave and chancel are coupled transepts, which have stepped quintuple lancet windows under hoodmoulds. The chancel features three tall lancets on the south side and an east window with three 2-light lancets that have Y-tracery, separated by pilaster strips and set within a recessed arch.

Inside, the church has five-bay aisle arcades supported by short columns with moulded annular caps and 2-centred double-chamfered arches. There are single-chamfered cross arches to the aisles and double-chamfered arches to the north transepts. The chancel features shafted arches on the north and south sides, with the former being moulded and the latter chamfered, and an arch-braced collar-truss roof.