Church of St Margaret is a Grade II* listed building in the West Northamptonshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 17 May 1960. A Medieval Church.
Church of St Margaret
- WRENN ID
- lone-cinder-flax
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- West Northamptonshire
- Constituency
- South Northamptonshire MP: Sarah Bool (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 17 May 1960
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Margaret, Church Lane, Alderton
- OS grid reference
- SP 740 469
- Coordinates
- 52.11557, -0.92002
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Margaret is a late Perpendicular church, with a largely rebuilt body dating from 1848. It is constructed of coursed squared limestone with slate roofs. The church comprises a chancel, nave, a south porch, and a west tower.
The two-bay chancel has a three-light east window with 19th-century curvilinear tracery and a hood mould with label stops. It also contains a pair of windows to the south, each with straight heads, cinquefoil-headed lights, cut spandrels, and hood moulds, and is defined by diagonal offset buttresses. The nave features two-light windows with Decorated style tracery and hood moulds with label stops. The south door has a hollow chamfer and wave moulding. The south porch has a chamfered doorway with a hood mould. The two-stage west tower has a two-light window with segmental-arched head and hood mould. The bell-chamber has two-light openings with straight heads and hood moulds, topped by a battlemented parapet. The nave and chancel have hollow-chamfered stone eaves, while the nave is defined by diagonal offset buttresses.
Inside the chancel, there is ogee-arched blank arcading to the east end. A double-chamfered chancel arch, continuous in its outermost section, rests on corbels in its innermost section. A double-chamfered tower arch is supported by polygonal responds. The roof is an arch-braced collar truss, dating from the 19th century. The octagonal font has a bowl and stem joined as one, and is panelled with cusped blank arcading and a foliage frieze with heads at the angles. Situated within the church is a dated 1631 hexagonal pulpit with panels featuring short, broad blank arches and strapwork above. One back panel is inscribed with a passage from Exodus 25 verse 22, accompanied by decoration inspired by the description of the mercy seat in that chapter. A pair of brass candle holders are also present. A west gallery curves forward and is supported by simple fluted columns, with a painted inscription reading: "THIS GALLERY WAS ERECTED FOR THE SINGERS ONLY ANNO DOMINI 1831 / BY VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE PARISHIONERS." 19th-century stained glass windows are located in the south windows of the chancel.
Notable monuments include an Early 14th-century oaken effigy of a cross-legged knight, believed to be Sir William de Combemartyne, who died in 1318. Another monument displays a brass plate in a moulded stone surround, dedicated to Sir John Heselrige, third son of Sir Thomas Haselrige Baronet, who died in 1655, featuring a Latin inscription and arms and a crest.
Local climate
Church of St Margaret sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 720 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 84% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 83% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 37 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 70% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings