Church Of St Margaret

Church of St Margaret

This is a parish church dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, built in flint with stone dressings and covered with grey corrugated tiles. The building comprises a north-west tower, nave, north and south aisles, ruined north and south transepts, chancel, and north, south and west porches.

The south facade features eleven 14th-century clerestorey windows with cusped 'Y' tracery alternating with large cusped cinquefoils, and single lancets at either end. Large figure pinnacles sit at the gable bases, with large crosses at the gable apices, the western one renewed. The mid-15th-century south aisle has a flush work parapet with four 4-light windows displaying panel tracery and an octofoil at the apex under pointed segmental heads. A similar window appears to the west. Coped angle buttresses and buttresses between windows reinforce the facade.

The 2-storied south porch, occupying 2 bays and extending 2 bays deep, is faced in ashlar golden limestone. It features vaulted upper niches at angle buttresses, a plinth frieze of alternate shields and roses, and a Perpendicular porch arch with a continuous order of shields and roses showing arms of benefactors. A second-order arch carries flower ornament with blank tracery in spandrels displaying shields with emblems of the Holy Trinity and the Passion. Outside shields show benefactor arms including those of Anne of Bohemia, who died in 1394. Two 3-light openings under pointed segmental heads have stepped embattled transoms with figure heads to hood moulds. A large vaulted niche between them has round shafts and a canted tracered canopy. A sundial sits above. The porch has a flamboyant fretwork parapet above a flush work frieze of quatrefoils, with a polygonal stair turret to the north-west featuring a similar parapet. Two 2-light unglazed openings to the returns of the first bay have tracery matching the aisle windows.

Inside the porch, the floor rises towards the doorway with stone benches. The groined tierceron vaulting has bosses springing from round attached columns. An ogee arch leads to the 14th-century doorway, which has lion head stops with an inner trefoil-headed order, each foil cusped. A thick marble threshold shows indents for brass shields and scrolls, not a reused tomb.

The roofless south transept has stepped angle buttresses of knapped flint with stone dressing, coped gables and niches. Square crocketted pinnacles stand at the angles with gabled panels to the sides. A crocketted south gable bears a broken cross at its apex. A 4-light opening to the south displays Geometric tracery with two large quatrefoils in circles below a lozenge with four cusped quatrefoils. Three-light openings to the east and west walls have ogee-headed lights to the east and reticulated tracery to the west. The east window of the aisle matches that in the transept. A blocked east window to the nave sits above a string course marking the former chancel roof.

The chancel is roofed in slate and features a priest's door and three 'Y' tracery windows to the south wall, with the eastern one renewed. A 5-light Perpendicular east window has panel tracery under a segmental head, imposed on blocked earlier lancets. Stepped buttresses sit at the angles.

The north facade shows one 'Y' tracery window to the chancel, and a ruined north transept with part walls but no other details. The clerestorey and north aisle windows match the south side. The clerestorey parapet displays elaborate panel and quatrefoil flush work. A small north porch has a slate roof with a pointed segmental arch carrying continuous mouldings to the 1st and 3rd orders, with round shafts to the 2nd. Cusped 2-light unglazed openings under square heads appear on the returns. The north doorway carries continuous mouldings.

The 3-stage north-west tower has angle buttresses and an embattled parapet, with a small stair turret to the north-east. Lancets appear in the 1st stage, with two blocked to the west and narrow slit windows to the west and one to the north. Two-light cusped ogee-headed bell openings have lost their tracery to the west. A large 6-light Perpendicular west nave window has renewed panel tracery and transomed lights.

The west porch was rebuilt in 1911 in coursed pebble flint with angle buttresses and an embattled parapet with crocketted finials at the angles. It houses a 14th-century west doorway with deep mouldings, the outer order bearing large roses with an angel head at the apex and round shafts. The inner order has a cusped cinquefoil head with a crocketted hood mould with crowned figure stops. A 14th-century door displays Decorated foliage to the strap hinges. Part of a Purbeck marble stoup remains.

Inside, the nave roof dates from around 1970 and is boarded with arched braced collars with fretwork above alternate collars in Decorated style. The 15th-century roofs to the aisles have fret-work spandrels to arch braces. The 14th-century arcades on the north and south, comprising 6 bays each, feature octagonal piers and moulded arches. Large varied figure corbels within spandrels to the south show traces of colour, whilst the north spandrels have panelled corbels with vaulted crocketted canopies above. Figure and foliage central stops adorn the arch mouldings to the aisles. The floor is partly paved with 15th-century 12-inch marble slabs.

The chancel arch has polygonal shafts with ovolo mouldings between hollow chamfered mouldings. A wide cinquefoil-headed piscina with a hollow chamfered arch stands nearby. The 17th-century altar has a strapwork frieze with its top renewed and enlarged. Six stalls from the 1530s feature misericords showing a merchant's mark (John Greneway) with "JG" impaling the Grocers' company arms.

A pulpit dated 1611 has two slender turned columns at the angles between panels displaying renaissance arches. Twenty-four 15th-century bench-ends bear animals and grotesques, many with poppy heads incorporating figures. A 15th-century octagonal seven-sacrament font stands in the church. Fragments of stained glass appear in the north chancel, with a series of female saints in tracery panels in the south aisle dating from around 1460. Slender shafts appear to the rear arch of the west doorway. A 15th-century west gable cross now stands in the south aisle.

An achievement board of Charles I, altered for Queen Anne, hangs north of the font. A large monumental brass from 1512 commemorates John Symonds and his wife Agnes in shrouds, with separate named children also shown. A good group of six sons dated around 1460 appears in the south aisle, together with various 16th-century brass inscriptions and figures.