Parish Church Of Saint Margaret

TL 1038 3278 HIGHAM GOBION 6/85 23.1.61 Parish Church of Saint Margaret

GV II*

Parish church. C14 and C15 details, but extensively reworked 1879-80 by Burton and Wood. Coursed ironstone and cobblestones, with ashlar dressings. Gabled clay tile roofs. Chancel, nave, narrow N aisle, W tower. Chancel: 2- stage buttresses to angles and to N and S walls. Pointed-arched E window of 3 trefoiled lights. NW window of 2 trefoiled lights, retaining some C14 tracery. SW window in same form but without tracery. C15 pointed-arched priest's door. Early C14 pointed chancel arch. Nave: 2-stage buttresses to NW and SW. Early C14 3-bay N arcade with pointed arches. 3 2-light pointed arched windows to S elevation, only W one trefoiled. Pointed arched S doorway. N aisle: more a narrow passageway, replacing original aisle. 3 windows, all paired pointed-arched lights. W tower: original tower arch remains, rest of tower rebuilt 1880. 2 stages, with angle buttresses and embattled parapets. Pointed-arched and trefoiled 2-light W window to lower stage. Upper stage has paired louvred windows to S and W elevations. Interior: cinquefoiled ogee-headed piscina and sedilia are C15 but reworked. Font, octagonal on heavy octagonal shaft, thought to be C17 or C18. Wall monument in chancel to Edmund Castell, Semitic scholar and professor of Arabic at Cambridge and rector of Higham Gobion from 1674 until his death in 1685. Last line of tablet is in Arabic, and is translated as "He elected to be buried in this spot in hopes of a better". Wall monument in nave to Thomas Halfpenny, d.1684. Brasses in chancel wall to Jane Cason, d.1603, and to Catherine Browne, d.1602 (both daughters of the Butler family, who held the manor) and their chidren. Roofs and pewing date from 1880.

Listing NGR: TL1037832784