Church Of St Ethelbert

The Church of St. Ethelbert is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant remodeling in the 14th and 16th centuries. It is constructed of flint, with rendering on the nave and chancel, and features brick and limestone dressings. The church has thatched roofs that extend continuously over the nave and chancel. It comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, and a south porch. The nave walls overlap the west tower to form north and south chambers; the west gable has a parapet with brick tumbling. A 14th-century two-light window is located on the west side. The upper section of the tower was reconstructed in the 16th century, using flint and red brick, and includes wide sound openings with hollow-chamfered reveals and elliptical brick arches. A brick embattled parapet tops the tower. A small, stone-dressed opening with chamfered reveals is present in the south wall, and two staged brick buttresses are on the west wall. Generally, the nave and chancel windows are early 14th century, with wide lancet arches featuring trefoil and cinquefoil heads. Two larger windows are in the south wall of the nave: one is a two-light window with Y tracery, and the other is a three-light window with intersecting tracery, both with hood moulds that include animal carvings and head stops. The south porch has a rebuilt gable of knapped brick and flint, and features a fine 12th-century south door with three orders of shafts, scallop capitals, a zig-zag and roll moulding, and a two-order hood mould with alternating scallops. The east window is a 14th-century three-light reticulated window with a hood mould on head stops. The north wall has six lancets, one of which is blocked, and five massive, staged brick buttresses. A simple 12th-century north doorway, now blocked with red brick, features two orders. Internally, the nave ceiling is plastered over deeply molded wooden coving. A tall tower arch has a 19th-century embattled screen, and doorways to the north and south tower chambers have elliptical arched heads. The chancel ceiling is plastered, exposing arch-braces and wall posts of the roof structure, with the westernmost wall posts resting on head-corbels. A 17th-century communion rail features turned balusters and square newels with attached half-shafts. A monument on the south wall of the chancel commemorates Captain Samuel Margerum and other members of the Margerum family, depicting a three-masted sailing ship on a pedimented white marble slab. A wall monument in the form of an obelisk on the north chancel wall is dedicated to Ann Cotton (died 1781) and Miss Sarah Margerum (died 1835). The font is a plain octagonal design, likely dating from the 17th century. Numerous pieces of re-set glass, of both English and foreign origin, are present, and it is believed that the east window contains glass brought from Rouen Cathedral by Lady Beauchamp of Langley Park.