Church Of St Margaret

The Church of St Margaret is a parish church dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, incorporating fabric from the 12th century, and restored in 1840 by R.C. Hussey. It is constructed from coursed ironstone and limestone rubble, with coursed squared ironstone and sandstone used for the tower, and has tile and lead roofs. The church comprises a chancel, a north sacristy, an aisled nave, a south porch, and a west tower.

The east wall of the chancel features a 5-light window with flowing tracery. The north wall has two 4-light windows with flowing tracery, and a blocked circular low-side window. A priests' doorway with a crocketed ogee hood is flanked by further 4-light windows with flowing tracery on the south wall. The south aisle’s 5-light east window contains tracery with a large roundel framed by mouchettes. The south aisle also has three 3-light windows, followed by a 3-light window with cinquefoil tracery and a 3-light west window with cinquefoil tracery. The Perpendicular south porch has an arch with continuous hollow mouldings and a C19 inner doorway with a 7-panel door. The west tower is of three stages and topped with a broach spire, featuring gabled lucarnes with ball-flower decoration. A C19 window is located in the north aisle’s west wall.

Internally, the nave has five-bay arcades. The south arcade incorporates Early English elements, with responds and stiff leaf capitals on the west side. Octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches within the south arcade, and similar piers and arches in the north arcade, are of Decorated style. The nave’s clerestory and roof is Perpendicular. The chancel includes Decorated sedilia and a piscina with crocketed ogee canopies. The sacristy doorway has a crocketed ogee arch with large head stops. Double label stops carved with figures, exotic beasts, and foliage adorn the chancel windows; a shield on the label stop of the south-west window bears the coat of arms of Thomas de Astley. The chancel arch has large head stops depicting a bishop and a king. Stone corbels in the nave roof incorporate reused C12 beasts' heads.

A Romanesque sandstone font, with a base formed by three crouching figures supporting a circular bowl carved with bead decoration, is also present. Fragments of Flemish C16 stained glass are in a north aisle window. Reused Jacobean panelling is incorporated within the aisles. A C19 organ, originally built for the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace, occupies a space within the church. A Parson’s Hutch, a C18-C19 sentry-box-like structure used by the parson at funerals, is situated in the south aisle. The church is believed to have been remodelled for Sir Thomas de Astley in the 14th century.