Church Of St Margaret

Church of St. Margaret

The Church of St. Margaret is a parish church at Stoke Golding with origins in the early 13th century. The building was substantially refashioned and enlarged between around 1290 and around 1340. It is constructed of dressed freestone blocks with lead-covered roofs of low pitch. The plan comprises a west tower, a four-bay nave with a south aisle, and a two-bay chancel with a south chapel integrated with the nave aisle.

The west tower dates to the early 14th century and rises in three stages marked by offsets. Angle buttresses diminish into the third stage. A fretted frieze runs beneath a hollow-moulded parapet string containing sculptured heads, above which stand small gargoyles at each corner and at the centre of each face. Above these is an openwork parapet of quatrefoils. A recessed octagonal spire rises from the tower with roll-moulded angles and three tiers of lucarnes, each a simple quatrefoil opening. The west window is a pointed two-light opening with trefoil-headed lights and Y-tracery with trefoil cusping in the spandrel, framed by a roll-moulded surround and ogee-moulded hood. Immediately below the window is a blocking. The belfry windows contain two lights with trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a single reticulation above.

The south side of the church was added between around 1290 and 1310. It features six pointed three-light windows alternating between two designs: Geometrical tracery of three circles containing quatrefoils, and cusped intersecting tracery. The easternmost window differs from the rest, having ogee-headed lights with quatrefoils above. All windows have concave quater-round moulded surrounds and a continuous roll and fillet-moulded hood. Buttresses at the bay divisions were formerly surmounted by richly carved pinnacles, stumps of which survive, linked by an openwork parapet similar to that of the west tower. A pointed south door in the west bay has two roll and fillet-moulded orders with foliated capitals, now heavily weathered, and a roll and fillet-moulded hood with mutilated stops.

The north side was remodelled between around 1320 and 1340, with work apparently beginning at the west end. Five windows pierce this front; the westernmost has lights with cusped intersecting tracery, the next three have cusped flowing tracery framed by two orders of convex quater-round mouldings. The two nave windows have ogee-moulded hoods terminating in carved heads, while the two chancel windows have returned concave quater-round hood moulds. A blocked pointed doorway lies to the west of the central nave window, having two orders of wave mouldings and a similar hood-mould to its flanking windows. Buttresses mark the bay divisions. Unlike the nave, the chancel has a moulded plinth, and the entire north side is provided with an ogee-moulded parapet string and a low parapet with moulded coping.

At the east end is an ambitious late 13th-century chancel window of five cinquefoil-headed lights with elaborate cusped Geometrical tracery, roll and fillet-moulded mullions, and two keel-moulded outer orders with a keel-moulded hood terminating in heads. The hollow-chamfered gable coping contains carved fleurons, and the apex is surmounted by a cross. The east end of the chancel is flanked by angle buttresses with panelled and crocketed pinnacles. To the left is the east window of the south aisle, also of five lights with the central light shorter than the others; the outer lights have trefoils above and the inner light a circle containing a trefoil. This window has a concave quater-round moulded surround and roll and fillet-moulded hood. A drainage spout with a carved face is positioned to the left.

Interior

There is no structural division between the nave and chancel. The four-bay nave arcade dates to around 1290 and features piers with filleted multiple shafting and richly carved capitals displaying naturalistic foliage, notably oak leaves. Two capitals incorporate figural heads, including a knight and ladies wearing wimples. The arches are roll and fillet-moulded pointed forms with hoods bearing sculptured heads or balls of foliage in the spandrels. The nave and aisle roofs date to the 15th or 16th century and comprise cambered and brattished tie beams surmounted by short stubby king-posts supported on brackets springing from wooden corbels. A roll moulding extends along the soffits of the brackets and tie beams, interrupted at the centre of each beam by a carved boss. The bosses in the aisle are of better quality than those in the nave. A 19th-century arch-braced collar roof covers the chancel.

Fixtures and fittings include an octagonal font of around 1340-50 on a shafted base. The panels around the basin depict window tracery and standing figures including St. Margaret, the donor, St. Katherine, and a bishop. In the south wall of the aisle is a small recess with a pointed arch and trefoil cusping, perhaps for an image. Adjacent to it is a segmental pointed-arch tomb recess with hood-mould and concave quater-round moulded surround. The sills of the windows in the south aisle are linked by a continuous string. The east end of the aisle now functions as a vestry, but a piscina in the south wall with a tall triangular head and crocketed hood suggests it was originally a chapel. On the left of the south aisle's east window is a corbel carved as a man's head, surmounted by a short column; disturbance of the masonry on the right suggests this was one of a pair, probably serving as image brackets or light stands. A 19th-century screen of Perpendicular character divides the nave and chancel. In the north wall of the vestry is the external face of a lancet window, indicating that the core of a 13th-century church survives.

Monuments include a late 13th-century incised sword, possibly commemorating Sir R. de Champaigne. A tablet to Henry Firebrace, died 1690, displays drapery around the sides and palm leaves on top beneath a cornice. The entire composition is surmounted by a pedestal with fishscale decoration from which rises a flame.