Church Of St Margaret

The Church of St. Margaret is a parish church built in 1733, designed in the style of a Palladian Temple and aligned directly with the front door of Well Vale House. It underwent alterations in the late 18th century and was restored in 1959. The church is constructed of red brick in English bond, featuring painted ashlar dressings and stucco. It has a Westmoreland slate roof with lead dressings and a boarded bell cupola topped with a shaped felted dome from the restoration.

The church has a single cell plan and an eastern Tuscan tetrastyle portico, which consists of four ashlar columns supporting a large pediment on plain brackets. The portico has a diamond-set stone flagged floor. Inside, the stuccoed wall features four pilasters framing an eight-panelled doorway with a moulded architrave and cornice, flanked by single blank openings with moulded architrave and keystone. An added hexagonal bellcote has a weather-boarded base, with six Tuscan columns supporting a cornice and cupola.

The side walls of the nave have a plinth and deeply overhanging eaves with plain dentillated brackets, along with two semi-circular headed windows that have key and impost blocks, later Y tracery, and leaded lights. The west end features a Venetian window with a broad dividing pier.

Inside, the church has egg and dart moulded rear arches to the windows. The walls are adorned with a late 18th-century swagged frieze and dentillated cornice, and the elaborate ceiling includes plaster roundels of bound stems, harebell swags, and cherubs.

Fittings include 18th-century tiered box pews on either side of the nave, with fluted pilasters on the front panels, and similar pews flanking the altar. The altar is enclosed by early 18th-century rails with knopped and turned balusters. A 20th-century panelled oak reredos in 18th-century style features a central niche. The double-decker panelled pulpit has a tester with a triglyph and dentillated frieze, and the stair balusters match the altar rails. The panelled oak gallery displays the Royal Arms of George II and 18th-century funeral hatchments, including one from 1733 dedicated to Mrs. Anne Bateman of Wellvale House. On either side of the altar are semi-circular headed commandment boards with moulded plaster surrounds.