Parish Church Of St Margaret

Parish Church of St Margaret, Margaret Roding

This is a parish church of medieval date, comprising a nave of the late 12th century, a chancel of the late 14th century, and a 19th-century vestry. A bell-cote was added or rebuilt in the 19th century. The building is constructed of flint rubble with dressings of limestone and clunch, cement-rendered on the east wall, and roofed with slate.

The chancel is furnished with diagonal buttresses and has a moulded internal string course. Its east window is largely of 19th-century date, though the internal splays, rear-arch and label are of the late 14th or early 15th century. The north wall contains no windows. The south wall has two late 14th-century windows, each with three trefoiled lights and vertical tracery set within a two-centred head; both are partly restored. These windows feature moulded jambs and two-centred arches, with the internal string course mitred around the three-sided rear arches. The chancel arch is of the 14th or 15th century, with chamfered responds and a four-centred arch of two chamfered orders. The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England noted that the lower parts of these responds incorporated reused 12th-century stones.

The nave contains three 12th-century windows in its north wall, each a single round-headed light. The westernmost retains early wrought ironwork and leaded plain glass. Between the two western windows stands the 12th-century north doorway, featuring a semi-circular arch with jambs enriched by a vertical line of diaper ornament; the tympanum is 19th-century restoration. The south wall has three 12th-century windows. The easternmost is of two cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred head, partly restored. The two western windows are round-headed, each with three circular ornaments cut in the head. Between these stands the 12th-century south doorway of three orders. The two outer orders have shafts with scalloped capitals, chamfered abaci and moulded bases to the inner shafts; the outer shaft is decorated with zigzag fluting, and squares of diaper ornament appear on the adjoining wall face. The inner order carries two shafts worked on the inner face. The two middle orders of the semi-circular arch display chevron ornament, while the outer order bears billets and diaper-work. The tympanum, with a segmental soffit, is ornamented with lozenge-shaped panels of diaper-work. The lower quoin-stones of the south wall retain diaper ornament, partly restored. The west wall contains a window of two round-headed lights, which the Royal Commission considered 18th-century but Pevsner suggested might be 17th-century, and above it a 12th-century round-headed window with external rebate.

The chancel roof is 19th-century with scissor-bracing, probably reproducing the original form and incorporating original ashlar-pieces on the south side. Two late 14th-century moulded tiebeams are present, along with moulded wallplates of the same date finished with carved floral bases against the east wall. The nave roof is 19th-century construction but incorporates ashlar-pieces, most of which are original, together with two straight tiebeams of the 15th century with plain square crownposts and curved axial braces, and hollow-chamfered and step-stopped wallplates, all of the 15th century.

The chancel contains several internal features of interest. On the east wall is a decayed stone corbel carved as a man's head. In the south-east corner stands a late 14th-century piscina with two-centred head, moulded label with finial, and octfoiled drain. The north wall displays a recess with low ogee arch, foiled near the springing, moulded label with crockets, finial and stop carved as a woman's head (much decayed), of late 14th-century date and possibly commemorating the builder of the chancel. Within the recess of the south-east window are sedilia comprising three bays of obtuse trefoiled arcading supported on two head corbels; the southern corbel was reported by the Royal Commission to represent a bishop, though it is now barely identifiable. These are of late 14th-century date.

Both doorways are 19th-century, but they reuse restored ironwork of around 1200, featuring hatched surface and foliated ends. The font is octagonal with a panelled bowl decorated with quatrefoils in circles enclosing blank shields, a panelled and traceried stem, and moulded base, of late 14th-century date. Fragments and quarries of late 14th-century glass survive in the south window of the chancel.