Church Of All Saints And St Margaret

Church of All Saints and St Margaret, Enford

An Anglican parish church of multiple periods from the 12th century and probably earlier, with significant later medieval additions and 18th and 19th-century alterations. The church was restored in 1825-30 by Benoni White of Devizes and again in 1892-3 by C.E. Ponting.

The building is constructed of banded flint and limestone with slate and lead roofs. It comprises a nave with aisles, a south porch, a chancel, and a west tower of ashlar. The nave has a clerestory and the south aisle features 2-light cusped windows with square heads. The north aisle, dating to the early 14th century, has an independently pitched roof and includes a 3-light east window with quatrefoiled tracery. The 15th-century tower rises in three stages with a stair tower in the south-west corner ascending above a crenellated parapet. The church's spire fell in 1817, after which the south porch was rebuilt with a horizontal parapet. The west window is 3-light with a door below. The inner door of the porch is early 13th century with a pointed arch on nook shafts bearing plain trumpet capitals, and an inverted stoup stands to the right of the door. An octagonal sacristy is positioned on the north side of the chancel.

The interior reveals substantial Anglo-Saxon building work. The nave walls, approximately 77 centimetres thick, are pierced with 12th-century round arches on nook-shafted piers with roll mouldings to the arrises and scalloped capitals. An earlier tall shaft is built into the east respond of the south arcade. The clerestory exists on the south side only. A four-bay flat-panelled roof dates from 1892-3. The late 12th to early 13th-century chancel arch is a pointed arch on two orders of columns with varied scalloped capitals. The late 13th-century chancel features a bold and plain wall arcade on the north side only, with tall pointed arches of alternating heights all having hollow chamfers. A shouldered arch leads to the sacristy, which has a recessed door in an adjacent arch. A trefoiled piscina stands at the east end. The south side of the chancel was rebuilt in brick and reroofed in 1779 with 4 bays containing shallow pitched king post trusses. The stone altar top is chamfered and set on a wooden base. The sacristy has lancets alternating with cupboards and is topped by a conical roof; eleven encaustic tiles are set into its walls.

The north aisle is wider than the nave and extends westward to embrace the tower. Its raised east end features a fine piscina enriched with trail-linked ball flowers, opening to the nave choir through a pierced stone grille. An aumbry is positioned on the north side, and the space is covered by a flat plaster ceiling of 1858. The south aisle is 15th-century, replacing an earlier 12th-century aisle, and also has a plaster ceiling. The tower base rises over three steps, with tall arches of two chamfered orders on round shafts.

The font beneath the tower is 15th-century with simply carved symbols and is surmounted by a 17th-century oak cover with carved brackets towards the centre baluster. A pulpit dates from 1891, and an hourglass holder wall bracket is present. The pews are early 19th-century with plain green painted panelling. The organ is by G. Osmond of Taunton.

A double chest seat of early 17th-century date is notable in the chancel. Monumental records include: in the chancel south wall, an 18th-century white marble tablet on slate by T. King of Bath with scroll, attic, cornice bearing arms and flaming beacons, and a crest of a draped urn, commemorating Abraham Pooke of Longstreet (died 1767) and his family; a later 18th-century white marble tablet with yellow inlay panels and veined marble pyramid above for Henry and Mary Hunt (died 1773 and 1746). In the nave is a 19th-century white marble tablet on black for Martha Stagg of Netheravon (died 1853) and her husband. The south aisle contains an 18th-century limestone and slate tablet with apron and crest for Ann Burnet (died 1788) and an oval inscription on Carrara marble for Hezekiah Munday of Coombe (died 1787). Two hatchments are also in the nave: one to John Grove of Chisenbury (died 1699) and one to Hugh Grove (died 1765). Royal Arms in relief over the chancel arch are dated 1831 and were restored in 1970. In the sacristy is a 19th-century brass to Hugh Grove, who restored the church in 1655. The north aisle contains a small kneeling figure of Jennifer Baskerville (died 1615) reset in a window, alongside a marble inscription.