Church Of St Margaret

Church of St Margaret

Anglican parish church with some 12th and 13th century work but predominantly 15th century, restored in 1895. The building is constructed of coursed rubble and ashlar with triple Roman tile and slate roofs, crested ridges and coped verges.

The plan comprises a nave with south aisle and south porch, chancel with south transept chapel and north chapel (now a vestry), and a west tower. The architecture is predominantly Perpendicular with minor Early English features.

The west tower was rebuilt new in 1434. It is embattled with three stages and corner pinnacles on shafts. Diagonal buttresses with offsets terminate on the third stage, topped by an embattled polygonal stair turret. The bell-chamber has 2-light windows of Somerset type with louvres. Below this are 2-light blank square-head windows. The tower features gargoyles, a 3-light west window, and a west door in a richly moulded surround with carved heads as label stops.

The four-bay aisle dates to the late 15th or early 16th century with an embattled parapet and nerlons pierced by quatrefoils. It has gargoyles and 3 and 4-light windows. The two-storey porch has an upper chamber, stair turret and narrow buttresses, with a parapet conforming to the aisle style. The first floor has a 2-light window with iron stanchion and saddle bars.

The three-bay nave retains Norman herringbone stonework on its north wall. It has 3-light windows with 19th century tracery except for a 2-light window on the north wall dating to around 1300. The north chapel was built in 1434 for Sir John Hylle and has a 3-light square-head window. It was converted to a vestry and enlarged in the 19th century, with a re-used 2-light window of around 1300. The short buttressed chancel has a 19th century lancet and a 14th century 3-light east window with restored plate tracery.

The porch is benched on a flag floor with a door to the parvise containing early graffiti. The interior has plastered walls on flag floors and an encaustic pavement in the chancel. The ceiled wagon roofs are of different periods: the south aisle and south chapel have 15th or 16th century roofs with ribs and bosses and plaster pendants, with 18th century cornices decorated with egg and dart enrichment; the nave has a 15th century roof with ribs and similar cornices; the chancel roof is probably 19th century. There is a three-bay arcade to the south aisle and a two-bay arcade between the chancel and chapel, the latter with foliate banding to the pier capitals. A broad chancel arch and an arch between the south aisle and south chapel complete the arcading. Windows have shafted reveals.

The church contains a virtually complete set of pews dated 1536 and 1561 with carved square-headed ends. The motifs include birds, a fuller and his tools, Renaissance heads in medallions, plants and stylised ornament. There are also carved readers. A scraped font, probably 14th century, stands on a moulded base. In the chancel is a monument to Sir John Hylle and his lady of around 1434, featuring reclining figures on a tomb-chest. The chest is panelled and arched at head and foot, containing shields within cusped and sub-cusped 4-centred arches. Above is a high attic with panels containing shields and much foliate decoration. A 15th century chest is also present. Two 19th century candelabra utilise 17th century wooden columns with interlacing vine decoration, most likely originally supporting a loft at the rear of the nave. The church retains a medieval alms box, a 19th century pulpit with re-used Jacobean panels, a Jacobean altar table with renewed top, 19th century decalogue plaques, lectern, altar rail, reredos, choir stalls and organ. There are several slab wall monuments including one of 1734, a 19th century monument by Wood of Bristol, and seven further principal 19th century monuments executed in stone and brass. Royal arms are displayed, and the church contains much good late 19th century stained glass. The bells include one from the 17th century and two from the 18th century.