Church Of St Margaret

The Church of St. Margaret is a parish church dating back to circa 1150, representing a rebuilding of an earlier structure, with a late 12th-century tower. It underwent restoration in the 18th century and in 1864 by Ewan Christian. The church is constructed of flint and rubble with red brick dressings and a slate roof, with a plain tiled roof to the south aisle. Fragments of herringbone flint and flint quoins in the chancel indicate remains of an earlier, possibly Anglo-Saxon, church. The present church comprises a chancel, nave, aisles, a north porch, and a western tower.

The two-stage tower was largely rebuilt and displays brickwork dated on large buttresses on the south face, featuring 17th-century battlements and a weather vane. A western doorway has a triangular gable with rings of carved voussoirs, including embattled moulding, nail head ornamentation, rope detailing, intersecting arches, concentric circles, and crudely carved triple arcaded seated figures at the arch's springing and apex. Shafts feature scalloped capitals. A late 12th-century north doorway showcases zigzag and dogtooth moulding, a rope twist, and stylized flowers, with a double rebated arch and nook shafts adorned with scallops and carved heads. The clerestory features a shafted ashlar arcading with irregularly spaced arches, some paired, and supporting sub-arches, topped by a corbelled parapet. Plain, lean-to aisles were fenestrated only in 1864. The chancel has a 13th-century roll-moulded south door and four round-headed lancets on each wall, set on a string course, with a 19th-century corbel table and a 19th-century east window.

Inside, a large late 12th-century tower arch is double chamfered and pointed, resting on round responds with water-holding bases and scalloped capitals. Four-bay arcades feature alternating round and Composite piers and zigzag order with embattled surrounds on moulded abaci with scalloped capitals, occasionally including carved heads. The clerestory has no ornamental treatment. The church has a 19th-century trussed rafter roof. The south aisle’s east window is roll-moulded from the 12th century, while the north aisle’s east window has triple lancets, with the remainder of the windows dating to the 19th century. A large chancel arch features a double rebated arch resting on round responds with decorated capitals and a zigzag moulded surround. The plain chancel includes a 19th-century east window and roof. Fittings include a round-headed piscina, 19th-century chancel fittings and a lectern, a piscina in the south aisle, and a simple octagonal font dated 1663. The church was formerly a possession of St. Martin's Priory, Dover, and was rebuilt on a lavish scale around 1150 by that foundation. Stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops are present.