Church Of St Margaret

The Church of St Margaret is a building with a complex history, primarily dating to the 12th, 14th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Located in Acton Scott, the church’s fabric comprises stone rubble with ashlar dressings, with plain-tiled nave roofing, a slate chancel roof with an ashlar coped gable, and a hipped slate roof over the north chapel.

The church incorporates a 12th-century nave, a 14th-century tower, a rebuilt 19th-century chancel and south nave wall, a north chapel of 1820, and a porch dated 1722. The plan consists of a chancel, a nave with a north transept and south porch, and a west tower offset slightly to the south.

The chancel features a 19th-century east window with triple stepped lancets. The south window consists of two lights with renewed cusped ogee tracery, originally a doorway. The north wall of the nave has a small 12th-century lancet, partly obscured by the north chapel. The north chapel exhibits opposing pointed windows with simple tracery, and a boarded door within a projecting ashlar surround with a 4-centred arched opening. The south wall of the nave boasts a 19th-century pointed window with simple tracery, alongside a south doorway with a chamfered round-arched opening and an early 19th-century panelled door, all sheltered by a projecting gabled porch with a round-headed arched opening displaying a datestone from 1722. A renewed cusped lancet is situated at high level above the porch.

The tower is two-stage, with a pointed window to the west and a restored doorway to the south featuring a shouldered lintel and small lancet above. The upper stage has louvred bell openings on each face, with shouldered lintels under stepped hoodmoulds; those to the east and south are wider and incorporate a central mullion. A clockface is visible on the east face, with a string course and a battlemented parapet at the top.

Inside, the chancel has a three-bay twin-purlin roof supported by four restored 15th-century arch-braced collar trusses with half-lapped cusped windbraces. The nave features a similar four-bay twin-purlin roof with three restored trusses, also with moulded soffits and cusped windbraces. The north chapel, designed for the Stackhouse family, presents a square plan with a ribbed Gothic Revival plastered ceiling and entablatures. It retains a gallery from around 1817. A 19th-century font is also present. Later 19th-century pews replace earlier box pews. The church houses two bells from around 1350, one cast by John of Gloucester, and one from Worcester dating to the 15th century. The chancel contains a large monument to Edward Acton, who died in 1747; this is a sarcophagus under a canopy featuring paired Tuscan columns, a metope frieze, and a pediment, designed by William Baker and executed by William Hiorn.