Church of St Margaret

The Church of St Margaret is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 14th and 15th centuries. It comprises a nave, chancel, a south porch, a west tower, and a north vestry. The exterior is constructed of rubble flint, with traces of old render, topped with slate roofs and freestone dressings. Stone quoins are absent from the corners of the nave. The early 14th century west tower is built with a combination of black knapped flint and freestone, featuring diagonal buttresses with freestone details to the west, a low-pitched hipped roof, and the absence of a parapet. A square quatrefoiled window is positioned on the south side, while a similar window containing an 8-spoked wheel is found on the north. The south porch incorporates an upper room accessible via a newel stair within a stair turret on the tower’s south side. The porch’s front wall, a combination of knapped flint and red brick, features two single-light windows with a cinquefoil niche between them. Inside the porch is a set of stocks. The south doorway is a simple Norman design, with a single order of shafts, roll moulding, volute capitals, and small vertical zigzags on the abaci. Remnants of a stoup with a trefoil head are situated to the south of the doorway. A Norman slit window is present in the south wall of the nave; the remaining windows are of Perpendicular style, with two lights each. The nave’s interior includes a 19th century pulpit and benches with poppyheads, and beside the pulpit are the remains of the rood stairs with a blocked upper door. The octagonal 15th century font displays four lions against the stem and on the bowl, the symbols of the four Evangelists alternating with four demi-figures of angels, and it is covered by a Jacobean cover with console brackets. The nave roof is arranged in six bays, with arch-braced construction, moulding to braces and purlins, an embattled and brattished cornice, and reinstated shields with carved emblems at the feet of the braces. A small section of the lower part of the chancel arch screen remains in the chancel, and its four panels are painted with figures, though now faded. The chancel features a three-light east window, and a small Easter Sepulchre with a panelled and traceried base, an ogee gable to the recess above, complete with crocketing and pinnacling. Early 18th century marble mural monuments, in a Classical style, are also present. The chancel has a boarded and stained roof. The north vestry contains a window with 14th century glass, incorporating tabernacle and border work.