Church Of St Margaret

Church of St Margaret

Parish church dating to the 15th century, restored around 1956. The building is constructed from dressed greenstone with some red brick patching. The roofs are lead and plain tile, with coped gables bearing single ridge crosses to the east nave and east chancel. The nave has a parapet to south and north, and is buttressed and set on a plinth with a moulded band running over all but the north chancel and porch.

The church comprises a tower, nave, south porch and chancel. The angle-buttressed tower is of two stages with bands, parapet and single corner gargoyles. The west wall contains a single 15th-century arched three-light window with cusped tracery, moulded surround, hood mould and head label stops. Above this, within the band, is a single carved head. Four arched bell chamber openings feature cusped tracery, moulded surrounds, hood moulds and human head label stops.

The north nave wall has a single 15th-century window with two ogee-arched and cusped lights and tracery under a flat arch. To the left is a moulded arched doorway with hood mould and label stops. Further left is a single segmental-arched 15th-century window with three ogee-arched and cusped lights, tracery and hood mould. The east chancel wall contains a single arched 15th-century window with three lights, cusped tracery and hood mould. The south chancel has two 15th-century windows, each with two ogee-arched and cusped lights and cusped tracery with hood moulds; the left window is segmental-arched and heavily restored, the right is under a flat arch. The south nave displays a single segmental-arched 15th-century window with three lights, cusped tracery and hood mould.

The gabled porch has a brick cambered-arched entrance with key block. It contains a single rectangular opening in the east wall and a single similar blocked opening in the west wall. The inner moulded arched doorway retains a 17th-century plank and stud door. To the left is a single 15th-century window with two ogee-arched and cusped lights and cusped tracery under a flat arch with hood mould.

Interior

The tower arch features triple chamfering (to the arch only) and is restored. The chancel arch is double-chamfered, with the inner order supported on octagonal responds; the capitals extend to form attached colonnettes. A restored 15th-century screen with arched and cusped openings and cusped tracery divides the spaces.

The south chancel contains an ogee-arched and cusped piscina; the north chancel has a rectangular aumbry. The south nave features a trefoil-arched piscina. To the left of the south door is a trefoil-arched stoup.

The 15th-century octagonal ashlar font is decorated on the sides of the bowl with shields, a figure and lute, a quatrefoil in circle, a hart licking leaves of the Tree of Life, and St. Mary with dead child. The font is set into remnants of incised 15th-century floor slabs.

A memorial to the family of Andrew Gedney and his wife (1591) features an inscription tablet with a surround of strapwork and a single skull above. Above this are single carved male and female figures with central prayer desks and shield; behind each figure are two further figures of children. Either side are single Ionic pilasters. An entablature with further inscription sits over.

The memorial to William Langhorne Burton and his wife (1739) is topped with an urn.

Fragments of 15th-century glass survive in the south-west window of the chancel and the nave windows.

Historical Context

Alfred Lord Tennyson's father served as Rector of Bag Enderby and the adjoining village of Somersby from 1808 to 1831.