Church Of St Margaret

Church of St Margaret

Small Anglican church of late 12th-century date, altered in the 17th century and restored in 1880. The building comprises a nave with north aisle, chancel, south porch, and bell turret.

The exterior walls are constructed of large random finely squared and dressed limestone, with the chancel north wall in ashlar. The porch is built of random roughly squared and dressed limestone and has a red tile roof with a 19th-century timber-framed turret.

The south wall of the nave contains a 19th-century double plank door within the porch, surrounded by a 12th-century doorway surround featuring a plain tympanum with a single band of diaper at the bottom, scalloped jamb shafts, diapered imposts, and chevron and pellet decoration over the tympanum. Above this is a moulded Tudor-arched entrance dated 1621, with the initials 'C.N / N.A' in the spandrels and the date on the lintel below the stopped hood. Stone bench seats are positioned within the porch.

To the right of the porch stands a three-light hollow chamfered stone-mullioned casement with stopped hood, and to the left a two-light flat-chamfered stone-mullioned casement. A single trefoil-headed lancet window is located at the west end of the nave.

The chancel has diagonal buttresses and features a three-light double-chamfered stone-mullioned casement on its south wall. The east end has a pair of Early English lancets. The north wall contains a two-light stone-mullioned casement with trefoil-headed lights, dating to the 19th century.

The north aisle is buttressed with diagonal buttresses and has 2-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned casements at the east end, north wall, and west end, these having Tudor-arched heads.

A squat timber-framed bell turret with ogee-curved decorative timbering is positioned towards the east end of the nave. It has wooden louvres to the belfry openings, a clock on the south side, and a pyramidal roof with weathervane.

The roof features stepped and flat coping with roll cross saddles to the gable ends, and an upright cross finial to the gable end of the chancel.

Interior

The interior has been scraped and the nave has three bays with 19th-century arch-braced collar beam trusses rising from 19th-century moulded stone corbels. A single early unused stone corbel is visible in the nave north wall.

At the west end of the north aisle stands a large 14th-century octagonal limestone font. The pews date to the 19th century but include 17th-century bench ends. A 15th-century octagonal wooden pulpit with linenfold panelling is present, and 19th-century communion rails with decorative wrought iron uprights have been installed. The communion table is 20th-century.

Two monuments occupy the north wall of the north aisle. The left-hand monument bears the initials F.D. and has a broken triangular pediment flanked by Ionic columns, with an illegible inscription. The right-hand monument is to John Darke, died 1805, and his wife Anne, executed in similar style. Both monuments had foliating inscriptions at the time of survey in May 1987.

The floor of the north aisle contains four 17th-century and one 18th-century ledger stone. An 18th-century ledger to members of the Attwood family is located in the main aisle.

A 15th-century figural stained glass window occupies the westernmost window of the nave north wall.

Monuments and Burials

A small free-standing headstone with pointed top stands in the churchyard, inscribed to 'William [---] the eldest who deceased this life Tuesday of February A.D. 1624'. A sandstone monument to Sarah Allen, daughter of John and Mary Allen, died 1829, is located far left of the porch. A monument to Sarah, daughter of Edward (?) Tirle of (?) Washbourne, died 1710, is situated near the east window and bears an inset inscription panel with two rosettes at the top.