Church Of St Margaret Of Antioch

Church of St Margaret of Antioch

Church with chancel, vestry, store, nave, south porch and west tower. The building is 13th century in origin, rebuilt in the early 17th century and again in 1827–28 by Charles Squarhill. Constructed of coursed squared limestone and ironstone with slate roofs.

The chancel is flanked by a vestry to the north and a store to the south. The vestry has two lancet windows to the north and ironstone quoins. The store, said to have originally been an anchoress's cell, has a plank door to the south-east with chamfered round-headed stone surround and a lunette to the south-west with chamfered head. The south wall of the chancel within the store has a blocked door to the south-east with square hood mould and hollow-chamfered string course or original stone eaves cornice. The chancel displays a datestone inscribed 1629 above a 3-light east window with chamfered ironstone surround, pointed head and cast-iron intersecting tracery. Similar windows light the 3-bay nave to the north and south. Pointed lunette windows to the west end of the nave, left and right of the tower, have similar heads and tracery. A pointed chamfered north doorway features an 8-panel door with moulded wood surround and an inscription above recording repair of the church in 1827. The south doorway has a single-stepped pointed head, imposts and hood mould, probably 13th century, with a 6-panel door.

The south porch has a stepped and hollow-chamfered doorway with hood mould, a small niche above, hollow-chamfered stone eaves and a stone-coped gable with kneelers. The small 3-stage tower has a lancet window to the bottom stage west with hood mould. A large 12-sided cast-iron clock dial sits above, with small lancets to the middle stage. The bell-chamber has 2-light openings with enriched cast-iron Y-tracery. The tower displays a battlemented parapet with cast-iron corner pinnacles, an ogee lead roof with ball finial and weather-vane, and low off-set diagonal buttresses. The nave has off-set buttresses between bays and off-set diagonal buttresses with deep coved plastered eaves. The stonework of the nave is banded with ironstone. Both nave and chancel have stone-coped gables.

Interior

The chancel contains a mid-19th-century stone reredos with the Creed, Lord's Prayer and Commandments, and a light timber triple-arched sanctuary screen with painted architectural decoration. The chancel arch is double-chamfered, with the chamfer continuous on the outermost face and polygonal responds on the innermost. The nave has a plastered ceiling with deep cove and a west gallery on square fluted timber piers with panelled front. The central panel displays the Royal Arms of George IV in oil on board. The west wall shows polygonal responds of former aisle arcades removed in the 1827 rebuilding. A massive chamfered tower arch on corbels is visible within the tower. A mural scheme of 1976, devised by Reverend Eltoft and executed by William Bird, depicts scenes from the Bible, the lives of saints and village history with foliage backgrounds evoking the months of the year. The font, probably early 17th century, has a low octagonal many-moulded stem and circular bowl with cross patterns. A monument on the south wall of the chancel, set up by Reverend David Owen (died 1619), features a slate inscription panel in moulded stone surround with a Latin inscription commemorating the benefactions of William Andrewe and the setting aside of part of the chancel for his burial and that of his heirs.

The church was originally a chapel-of-ease of Yardley Hastings.