Church Of St Margaret

Church of St Margaret at Felbrigg

This is a medieval parish church with later additions, built of flint with stone and brick dressings, and covered with lead and tile roofs. The building comprises a west tower, nave, north and south porches, and chancel.

The embattled west tower dates to around 1410 and was built by Sir Simon de Felbrigg. It rises in four stages of knapped flint with diagonal buttresses. The flushwork basecourse is partly lost on the north side. The west doorway features slim shafts with polygonal abaci and bases, and an arch with roll and fillet moulding with a hollow continuous to the inner and outer orders. The hood mould and label have stops carved with beast heads. The spandrels are decorated with encircled shields, one bearing a fetterlock (the symbol of Sir Simon de Felbrigg) and the other a bird. The west window is a 19th-century 3-light insertion in a medieval opening with hood mould and alternate stone and flint voussoirs. Square ringing chamber openings with cusped cruciform tracery are partly lost on the south side. There are 2-light Perpendicular bell-openings. A stair turret occupies the south east corner of the tower with slit lights.

The nave is built of flint rubble with some ironbound conglomerate, and consists of three bays with buttresses. Some buttresses dating to the 15th century carry the fetterlock symbol. On the south side, to the left of and partly covered by the porch, is a blocked 2-light window with panel tracery still visible, hood mould with figure stops, and alternate flint and brick voussoirs. Two 19th-century 3-light Perpendicular windows are also on the south side. The north side has a buttressed porch with flushwork similar to the tower, featuring single cusped lights to east and west beneath square hood moulds. The archway has slim shafts with polygonal abaci and bases and a hollow chamfered arch with hollow continuous inner and outer orders. This porch is built over a similar blocked window. Two 19th-century 3-light windows are present. A rood stair also survives.

The chancel consists of two bays with buttresses. Two windows on the south have been blocked, featuring alternate stone and flint voussoirs. On the north side are two post-medieval brick buttresses. There is one blocked window with alternate brick and flint voussoirs and a blocked doorway with 4-centred arch. The 3-light east window dates to the 1874 restoration. The south porch is buttressed with square knapped flint to the south and restored blocked single lights to east and west. It has a similar archway to the north porch and an ogee-headed niche above. The nave doorway is continuously moulded with a hood mould and a stoup beside it.

The interior contains a 15th-century roof restored in 1956, with some new bosses added. The tower arch has a shaft with polygonal bases and abaci and a chamfered arch with an outer continuous order and an inner arch on head corbels. The chancel arch has polygonal shafts, bases and abaci to a roll moulded arch.

The sedilia and piscina date to around 1400 and consist of four crocketed and cusped ogee arches with encircled shields in the spandrels, crocketed finials, and niches with tierceron vault. The centre two arches are cut by a monument to William Windham (died 1810) by Nollekens, featuring a sarcophagus with lion's paws resting on a plain base surmounted by a bust of Windham.

The church contains numerous monuments to the Windham family. A monument to Thomas Windham (died 1653) has unfluted Composite columns and pilasters, a central bracket to broken pediment with laurel wreath and achievement, and two winged figures lying atop the pediment, one with a scythe and one with a trumpet. It was erected in 1669. Two similar memorial monuments commemorate Joan Windham (died 1669) and John Windham (died 1676), each with a panel having scrolled eared architrave, scrolled broken pediment and achievement, and a winged cherub bust to the base. A monument to William Windham (died 1689) is perhaps by Grinling Gibbons, made of white and grey marble, with a panel surmounted by putti and an urn, flanked by swags of fruit and flowers, and a massive projecting base.

The church contains a series of brasses from the late 14th to early 17th centuries, including that to Sir Simon Felbrigg and his wife (died 1416), featuring 1.5-metre-high figures. Eighteenth-century pine box pews are present, ramped towards the east. There is a late 14th-century octagonal font with traceried panels. The chancel has a ceiling of 1785 with arched braces, restored in 1956.