Church Of St Margaret And All Saints

The Church of St Margaret and All Saints is a parish church with a complex and unusual history, dating back to the 13th century. The south-west tower originates from the early 13th century and was rebuilt in the 15th century, while the remainder of the building is primarily 15th century. Until 1748, the building housed two separate churches – St Margaret’s occupying the north nave and All Saints the south – unified under one rector Robert Graunt between 1411 and 1422. During this period, Graunt demolished the dividing wall, constructed the arcade, and made key medieval alterations to the building. The churches were again re-divided until 1748. The church underwent restoration in 1929-38, suffered severe damage from incendiary bombs in 1941, and was subsequently rebuilt between 1946 and 1950.

The church is constructed of flint with ashlar dressings and some brick, featuring thatched roofs. The building has two naves and continuous chancels, a south-west tower, and a south porch. The north nave possesses diagonal corner buttresses, and an arched north nave door, alongside four restored 3-light Perpendicular windows with square heads. A much-restored early 14th-century 3-light reticulated west window, featuring quatrefoils, and an early 14th-century 3-light reticulated east window with quatrefoils and trefoils (the lights filled with flint in 1949) are also present. A 20th-century vestry abuts the west gable. The south nave tower is unbuttressed and features two lancets on the west side, a string course below the 15th-century belfry stage, and 2-light reticulated belfry windows on the north and south sides, with arched, louvred windows to the east and west. The tower is topped with a crenellated parapet. The gabled south porch has diagonal buttresses, eroded roll and wave-moulded jambs, and a wall sundial in the gable-head, along with openings of trefoil lights on the east and west sides. Four 2- and 3-light Perpendicular south windows have been restored or replaced in the 20th century. A low priests' door is set into the chancel, alongside a 3-light reticulated chancel east window of 20th-century design.

The interior features a 7-bay arcade divided into 5 bays for the naves and 2 bays for the chancel, with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. The roof is scissor-braced (1946-50). A rood screen, reconstructed without its original canopy after that canopy’s demolition in 1767 and the destruction of most of its panels in 1941, extends the width of the church. A late 14th-century octagonal font sits on a plinth, with lions crouching along the stem and the symbols of the Evangelists and two white harts of Richard II adorning the bowl. A brass memorial to John Bowf and his wife (1417) is set into the north wall, depicting figures in civil dress with a predella featuring two sons and nine daughters. A brass memorial to Richard Folcard (1451), depicting a half-figure in academical dress, is located in the south chancel, alongside a painted Royal Arms of Charles II on the west wall.