Church Of St Paul And St Margaret

The Church of St Paul and St Margaret is a church built in 1866 by Healey for Miss Rawson of Nidd Hall. It is constructed of gritstone and has a graduated grey slate roof. The church features a 4-bay nave with a west tower that has three stages, a north aisle, a south porch, and a 2-bay chancel. The gabled porch has a Gothic arch with roll moulding and a hoodmould that may date back to the 13th century. The nave windows consist of three cusped lights, while the chancel has one and two-light windows. The exterior includes large buttresses, gable copings, and cross finials. The east window is a prominent 3-light design with two quatrefoil and one trefoil opening under a hoodmould. The north aisle has three 2-light windows and one 3-light window, while the vestry features a plain 4-light window. The west tower is supported by angle buttresses up to the bell stage, with gablets at the top of the first stage. It has paired lancets on the west side, narrow lancets on each side of the second stage, and elaborate 2-light belfry openings with a central shaft in a large pointed arch, complete with attached shafts, a hoodmould, and a pierced quatrefoil with inner cusping in the tympanum. The tower is topped with embattled parapets and crocketed finials.

Inside, the porch is lined with limestone ashlar, and the inner board door features 3-pronged hinges. The north aisle of the nave has three quatrefoil columns, and both the nave and chancel are floored with polychrome tiles. The font located at the base of the tower is circular with a deep rim band and originates from an earlier church, along with several pieces of carved stone. The church walls are plain and unplastered, with memorials dedicated to the Rawson and Butler (Mountgarret) families. A stained glass window in bay 2 of the north aisle depicts the nativity with shepherds and serves as a memorial to Henry Edmund, the 13th Viscount Mountgarret of Nidd Hall, who died in 1900. This window is likely the work of Charles Kempe, as is the window in bay 4, which memorializes Elizabeth Rawson (died 1900) and depicts the Madonna and child flanked by Simeon and a Psalmist.