Church of St Margaret is a Grade II* listed building in the North Norfolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 16 April 1955. A Medieval Church.

Church of St Margaret

WRENN ID
lost-mantel-raven
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
North Norfolk
Constituency
North Norfolk MP: Steff Aquarone (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
16 April 1955
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St Margaret, Church Road, Sea Palling
OS grid reference
TG 429 268
Coordinates
52.78424, 1.60191
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St. Margaret is a parish church with origins dating back to the 13th century, featuring a west tower from this period and a belfry stage added in the 14th century. The nave and aisles were converted into an aisleless nave in the 15th century, and the chancel, also from the 14th century, underwent alterations in the 15th century. The church was restored between 1898 and 1900. It is constructed of flint with ashlar dressings and has slate roofs.

The tower is a three-stage square structure without buttresses, featuring an arched western light and two-light louvred belfry windows with broken tracery, topped with a crenellated parapet that is set back. There are remains of blocked aisle west windows. The nave has diagonal corner buttresses and two stepped side buttresses, along with two restored Perpendicular nave windows. A blocked north double chamfered doorway includes a holy water stoup to its west. The gabled south porch is accessed through a wave moulded arch and has knapped flint on its south face, with a wave moulded inner doorway and a 15th-century arcaded door. The porch integrates into a buttress. A 19th-century priests' door is located on the south chancel, along with diagonal east buttresses and a five-light east window from the 19th century, which reflects a mix of Decorated and Perpendicular styles. The north chancel wall is blank.

Inside, there is a double chamfered tower arch, with blocked windows from the original aisles on either side. The chancel arch is double hollow chamfered with polygonal responds and capitals. A blocked north doorway is present, and the nave and chancel roofs are scissor braced from the 19th century, featuring four 19th-century tie beams. There are 17 bench ends with poppyheads from the 15th century. A cinquefoiled piscina is located in the southeast nave wall, and a square-headed piscina is found in the north wall to the left of a segmental rood stair opening, with stairs to an upper doorway still intact. The dado of the 15th-century rood screen includes four subdivided traceried bays on either side of the opening, with spandrels featuring carved vegetation and birds. The chancel piscina from the 14th century has a cinquefoiled design below hood on labels, and there is a 14th-century octagonal traceried font with cusped two-light tracery on the stem panels, alternating flowing and early Perpendicular tracery in the bowl panels.

Local climate

Church of St Margaret receives an average of 760 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 67% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 67% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 7 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 4 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • No related consent applications matched
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. The Thatched Cottage Grade II 117 m
  2. Dale Farmhouse Grade II 457 m
  3. Barn at Dale Farm Grade II 458 m
  4. Waxham Great Barn Grade I 1.1 km
  5. Subsidiary Garden Wall to Waxham Hall Grade II 1.1 km
  6. Waxham Hall Grade I 1.1 km
  7. Enclosing Wall and Gatehouse to Waxham Hall Grade I 1.2 km
  8. Church of St John Grade II* 1.2 km
  9. French's Farmhouse Grade II 1.3 km
  10. Tower Mill 40m North of Mill House Grade II 1.5 km