Church Of St Margaret

Church of St Margaret

Parish church. The font is probably 12th century; the west tower, western bays of the nave and aisle date from the 15th century. The church was extended eastward by one bay, the chancel was entirely rebuilt, and the whole building was thoroughly restored between 1872 and 1879 by the architect Henry Woodyer at a total cost of £2,300. The construction uses medieval masonry rubble with 19th-century snecked stone masonry, and the roof is covered in red tiles.

Plan and Development

Woodyer extended the nave and aisle by one bay and completely rebuilt the chancel and the south wall of the aisle, incorporating the medieval south doorway and some earlier masonry. The flamboyant window tracery is Woodyer's design. The church comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, four-bay south aisles, south chancel chapel, and south porch. The chancel roof is carried down as a catslide over the north-east vestry.

Exterior

The 15th-century battlemented tower has a plinth, diagonal buttresses, and a three-sided north-east stair turret. A medieval four-centred west doorway and a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular west window are prominent on the west face. The tower displays two- and three-light 19th-century traceried openings on all four faces. The nave has buttresses and two- and three-light Perpendicular windows, except for a 19th-century Decorated pulpit window to the east of the rectangular stair turret. The south chancel chapel is defined by a string course and buttresses, with 19th-century Decorated windows. Woodyer's chancel is buttressed with a string course and features a three-light flamboyant east window with a hoodmould carried down on corbels below the sill. A gabled south porch has a two-centred outer doorway with a 19th-century roof and an outer order added to a late medieval moulded inner doorway; a probably 17th-century panelled door survives inside.

Interior

The chancel and most fittings are by Woodyer. Rendered walls have their edges decorated to emphasize the medieval openings. A notable late medieval nave roof survives.

A tall medieval chamfered tower arch with pyramid stops and abutments to the north and south faces opens into the nave. The chancel arch is richly moulded and is a work of Woodyer, with moulded responds and carved capitals. The four-bay arcade includes an easternmost bay which is a Woodyer copy of the late medieval slender piers with corner shafts carrying moulded Tudor arches on foliage-carved capitals. A depressed medieval segmental arch is presumably resited between the chancel and south chancel chapel with a 19th-century parclose. A hagioscope pierces the same wall.

The fine late medieval open wagon roof to the nave, presumably extended by Woodyer, features moulded ribs and an unusual variety of carved bosses. The wall plates are carved with rustic green men. The aisle has an unceiled wagon roof with moulded ribs, while the chancel has a boarded wagon roof with moulded ribs and small bosses.

Fittings

The chancel contains very complete Woodyer fittings: a stone and local marble reredos with symbols of the evangelists painted in gold, 1879 tiling, poppyhead choir stalls with book rests on iron standards, a communion rail with iron standards, and a low timber chancel screen with traceried panels.

The nave contains an unusual, possibly 12th-century font: a round bowl on a cylindrical stem decorated with two carved profile heads and mouldings on the base, accompanied by a 19th-century font cover in the Romanesque style. A 1879 brattished stone pulpit with bold tracery panels and 1879 plain square-headed bench ends are also present.

An important set of ten Hardman windows with memorial dates between 1862 and 1910 adds to the coherence of the interior. 19th-century brass fittings in the chancel are possibly also by Hardman. A painted Royal Arms dated 1742 in a frame hangs on the nave wall.