Church Of St. Margaret

The Church of St. Margaret is a parish church dating back to the 13th century, with significant additions and alterations in about 1300, the 14th century, the 16th century, and a Victorian restoration in 1884 by James Fowler. It is built of squared greenstone and limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a plain tiled roof. The church comprises a western tower, a nave, two aisles, a south porch, and a chancel.

The two-stage tower, partly of the 16th century and originally entirely of limestone, features angled buttresses, a plinth, a string course, and an embattled parapet with pinnacles. The C19 west door is pointed with a hood mould. Above the door is a 16th-century two-light window with four-centred arched heads to the lights and a chamfered surround. The belfry stage has paired C19 cusped lights under pointed arches with hood moulds. The north aisle has three paired cusped C19 lights, a single plain window, and a plain C19 lancet at its east end. The chancel’s east end displays triple lancets united under a moulded hood. The south side of the chancel includes two paired lancet windows and a pointed priest's door, all with moulded hoods and labels. A single lancet is in the south aisle's east wall, and the south wall holds a plain rectangular light and a much-restored 14th-century three-light window with cusped ogee heads to the lights, a moulded surround, and a C19 hood. A completely C19 cusped two-light window sits to the side of the porch, and a late 13th-century trefoil-headed lancet is in the west wall. The 1884 south porch is timber-framed and gabled, featuring elaborate cusped bargeboards. The inner doorway is 13th-century, single chamfered with a hood.

Inside, the C19 tower arch is single chamfered and pointed. The north arcade, dating from about 1300, has four bays with quatrefoil shafts, moulded capitals, double chamfered arches, and plain hoods. The late 13th-century south arcade features three bays with octagonal pillars, moulded capitals, and double chamfered arches. There is no chancel arch. A hacked-back 13th-century piscina is located in an arched recess in the south aisle. Fittings are mostly C19, except for a 14th-century octagonal font with alternating blank arches on the sides and a scalloped octagonal pedestal. The C17 pulpit has been largely reconstructed in the C19, taking the form of a demi octagon with panelled sides and a corniced top. The panels feature two stylised perspective doorways with chequered pavements and an elaborate architectural frame with tapering columns, double consoles supporting a dentillated frieze, and an open pediment. A C17 chest with a panelled front and paterae to the upper rail is also found in the south aisle.