Church Of St Margaret

The Church of St. Margaret is a parish church located in Stow Bedon, dating back to the 11th century. It features a flint construction with ashlar quoins and plain tiled roofs. The church includes a circular west tower from the 11th century, a nave from the 15th century, and a chancel from the 14th century. It was restored in 1856.

The tower is circular with an octagonal belfry stage, featuring a 2-light Perpendicular west window below a lancet. The late 15th-century belfry showcases chequer flushwork and 2-light trefoiled windows that support a quatrefoil in a vesica. The nave has a west parapet on kneelers, and there is a gabled south porch with diagonal buttresses and a moulded arch. The church has 2-light windows on the east and west sides with ogee lights beneath encircled quatrefoils.

The inner south doorway consists of two orders of waves separated by engaged columns on high polygonal bases and capitals. The south nave has two 3-light panel traceried windows separated by flat buttresses with some flushwork. The chancel's south side features two 2-light trefoil windows under flat hoods on beak stops, along with a simple arched Priest's door. The east and west ends have coped parapets, with diagonal half buttresses to the east and a 3-light mid-14th-century window, likely restored in a variation of the stem-and-leaf type. There is one 2-light 15th-century window on the chancel's north side under a flat hood, flat buttresses, and two 3-light 19th-century panel windows on the north nave, along with a blocked north door.

Inside, there is a low semi-circular tower arch with impost blocks decorated with cable, interlace, and snake motifs above a prominent roll moulding. The square Norman font is supported by five shafts with plain scalloped capitals and features a richly carved bowl: the east face displays four figures under an arcade, the north has an interlacing arcade, the west features two Green Men, one inverted, and the south face is adorned with foliate carving. The four corner shafts exhibit carvings reminiscent of pre-conquest styles, likely dating around 1120.

The late 14th-century screen, heavily restored in 1856, consists of two bays flanking an ogeed central opening with panels in the spandrels and a dado with a floral frieze. There is an angle piscina in the chancel with two trefoil ogees on a renewed shaft. The remaining fittings and roof were also restored in 1856.