Church Of St Margaret

Parish church. Built 1847–49 by P.C. Hardwick in 13th-century style. Restored in 1986 following a fire in the north aisle. The church is constructed of small blocks of roughly-coursed stone with plain tile roofs to the nave, chancel and vestry, and a slate roof to the aisle. A shingled spire rises above the structure. The building comprises a nave with a tower positioned towards the west end of the south elevation, a narrower chancel with a vestry to the north, and a north aisle to the nave.

A chamfered stone plinth runs around the entire church, with foliated label-stops to hoodmoulds throughout. The west end of the nave features a buttress between the nave and aisle and another at the south-west corner. A chamfered string with foliated stops runs across the façade, stepped up over the doorway and continued round the buttresses, then dropped lower along the south wall of the nave and west end of the north aisle. The gable is topped with roll-moulded kneelers and a doubly plain-chamfered circular window with semi-circular hoodmould towards its apex. Two doubly plain-chamfered pointed lancets with hoodmoulds flank this, the north window having foliated stops and the south carved heads. The west doorway comprises three orders of plain-chamfered pointed arches springing from engaged shafts with bell capitals, topped by a hoodmould with carved heads as label stops. The door itself is boarded with scrolled hinges.

The south elevation of the nave contains a single-chamfered lancet towards the west end and three similar lancets alternating with buttresses to the east of the tower. The tower has three stages with clasping south-east and south-west buttresses and a deeper plinth than the rest of the church. A scroll-moulded string runs between the lower stages, with a chamfered offset between the central and belfry stages. A moulded cornice band crowns the tower, above which rises a splay-footed octagonal spire with an encircled cross finial. The belfry stage features arcaded openings with four chamfered pointed arches on each face, with engaged shafts topped by bell capitals and bases; the two outer arches are blind while the two inner ones are louvred. A single-chamfered south lancet lights the central stage. The south doorway of the tower consists of three plain-chamfered orders, the inner order springing from semi-octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases in 14th-century style, with broach stops below the bases and a hoodmould with heads as label stops.

The chancel has lower eaves and ridge than the nave. A higher string, stepped up over the south doorway, runs across it. It is supported by clasping north-east and south-east buttresses and a single south buttress, with moulded kneelers to the gable. Paired doubly plain-chamfered shafted lancets with scroll-moulded hoodmould light the west end of the south elevation, the east end of the south elevation, and the east end of the north elevation. The east window consists of stepped triple lancets with a scroll-moulded hoodmould. A doubly plain-chamfered south doorway with a Caernavon arch and broach stops is fitted with a door with scrolled hinges.

The vestry, positioned at right-angles towards the west end of the chancel, has an east buttress. Its gable features moulded kneelers and a squat chimney stack at the apex. A north window of three Caernavon-arched lights sits within an ashlared architrave. The east doorway is simply pointed and chamfered, with broach stops, a keel-moulded hoodmould, and a door with scrolled hinges.

The north aisle contains four paired plain-chamfered lancets alternating with buttresses. A chamfered west lancet with hoodmould is present, alongside a plain-chamfered pointed-arched doorway with moulded imposts and a hoodmould with heads as label stops in the second bay from the west.

Internally, the structure comprises a five-bay north arcade to the nave, consisting of doubly plain-chamfered pointed arches springing from circular columns with bell capitals and bases. The piers at the end columns are chamfered with bar stops. A doubly-chamfered pointed chancel arch has an inner order springing from semi-octagonal columns with scroll-moulded capitals and water-holding bases, topped by a scroll-moulded hoodmould with heads as label stops. The north and south chancel lancets feature shafted rere-arches, with the moulding on the bell capital of the central shaft carried back to the centre of the external window and scroll-moulded hoodmoulds with foliated stops. The east window has paired shafts to its jamb and triple shafts between the lights, all ringed. A moulded doorway with a cambered head and scrolled-hinged door opens to the vestry. The south chancel door features fleur-de-lys hinges.

The roof comprises five bays over the nave, constructed of collared principal rafters with a collar purlin and butt side purlins. Continuous arch braces run from pendant posts via butt purlins to the collar purlin, with bosses at each intersection. Stone corbels with bell capitals have stems alternately carved with foliage and heads. Intermediate trusses are arch-braced with bosses from the top of a moulded cornice. Common rafters are fitted with ashlar pieces. The chancel roof consists of collared rafters with scissor braces, ashlar pieces and a moulded cornice. The aisle roof is a butt purlin roof with principal rafters springing from roll-moulded corbels in the north wall and arch-braced from corbels on the back of the nave arcade.

The interior fittings include a scroll-moulded string running along the chancel and south side of the nave. A stone pulpit with a coved stem and enriched cornice, stepped with a wrought-iron handrail, stands in the south-east corner of the nave. An octagonal stone font on four columns with moulded capitals and bases is positioned in the south-west corner of the nave.

Collier Street became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1858.