Church Of St Margaret

The Church of St. Margaret is an Anglican parish church dating to the late 12th century, with alterations made in the 13th and 15th centuries and a Victorian restoration. It comprises a nave, a north porch, a central tower, a north transept, a chancel, and remains of a south chapel. The exterior is constructed of coursed rubble with freestone quoins and dressings, with ashlar used in the upper parts of the tower; the nave roof is lead, while the rest of the building has plain and fishscale tiles.

The central tower, visible in two full stages, was altered in the 15th century and restored in the 19th. It features 2-light round-headed windows set within a large round-headed opening, all with continuous roll mouldings, diagonal buttresses with offsets, a parapet with pierced arcading, pinnacles, and gargoyles. 2-light Perpendicular style bell chamber windows have blank arcading and dripmoulds with diamond stops. A 2-light Perpendicular style window with a cusped ogee head fills an earlier arch on the south side of the tower's lowest stage; a polygonal stairtower projects to the north-east. The nave has a 19th-century Perpendicular style window and a projecting north porch, also of the 19th century. The north transept has a 3-light Perpendicular style window with buttresses and offsets at the sides. The chancel includes a 2-light 19th-century Perpendicular style north window, a 3-light east window with Geometrical tracery, and a projection on the south side.

Inside, the tower arches are pointed with single stepped returns; the arches to the nave and chancel have half-columns with scalloped capitals. A blocked doorway with a 4-centred head is above the north arch. A 2-bay arcade on the south side of the chancel was built to the now-removed south chapel, dating from the early to mid-13th century. This arcade is characterised by an octagonal central pier with a capital enriched with stiff-leaf, an animal head, and a human head in a headdress; the west respond shows minimal stiff-leaf enrichment, while the more complete east respond is enriched with a beast’s head and a human head bitten by beasts, with double-chamfered arches. A carved and crowned female head supports a book rest on the north wall. The font is 12th-century ashlar, with a cylindrical stem and an octagonal bowl with a cushion base.