Listed Building: Church of St. Margaret of Antioch (1041584)

Church. C13 rebuilt early C17 and again in 1827-8 by Charles Squarhill. Chancel, vestry, store, nave, south porch and west tower. Coursed squared limestone and ironstone, slate roofs. Chancel is flanked by vestry to north and store to south. Vestry has two lancet windows to north and ironstone quoins. Store, said to have originally been an anchoress's cell, has plank door to south-east with chamfered round-headed stone surround and lunette to south-west with chamfered head. South wall of chancel within store has blocked door to south-east, square hood mould and hollow-chamfered string course or original stone eaves cornice. Chancel has datestone inscribed 1629 above 3-light east window with chamfered ironstone surround, pointed head and cast-iron intersecting tracery. Similar windows to 3-bay nave north and south. Similar heads and tracery to pointed lunette windows to west end of nave, left and right of tower. Pointed, chamfered north doorway and 8-panel door with moulded wood surround. Inscription above recording repair of church in 1827. South doorway has single-stepped pointed head, imposts and hood mould, probably C13, and 6-panel door. South porch has stepped and hollow-chamfered doorway with hood mould, small niche above, hollow-chamfered stone eaves and stone-coped gable with kneelers. Small 3-stage tower has lancet window to bottom stage west with hood mould. Large 12-sided cast-iron clock dial above and small lancets to middle stage. 2-light bell-chamber openings with enriched cast-iron Y-tracery,. Battlemented parapet with cast-iron corner pinnacles and ogee lead roof with ball finial and weather-vane. Tower has low off-set diagonal buttresses. Nave has off-set buttresses between bays, off-set diagonal buttresses and deep coved plastered eaves. Stonework of nave is banded with ironstone. Nave and chancel have stone-coped gables. Interior: chancel has mid C19 stone reredos with Creed, Lords Prayer and Commandments, light timber triple-arched sanctuary screen with painted architectural decoration and double-chamfered chancel arch, chamfer continuous outermost, polygonal responds innermost. Nave has plaster ceiling with deep cove. West gallery on square fluted timber piers with panelled front. Royal Arms of George IV to central panel; oil on board. West wall has polygonal responds of former aisle arcades removed in 1827 rebuilding. Tower arch, visible within tower, has massive chamfered arch on corbels. Mural scheme of 1976, devised by Reverend Eltoft, by William Bird with scenes from the Bible, the lives of saints and village history with foliage backgrounds evoking the months of the year. Font, probably early C17, with low octagonal many-moulded stem and circular bowl with cross patterns. Monument on south wall of chancel set up by Reverend David Owen d.1619 with slate inscription panel in moulded stone surround. Latin inscription commemorating benefactions of William Andrewe and the setting aside of part of the chancel for the burial of him and his heirs. Church was originally a chapel-of-ease of Yardley Hastings. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: 1973, p183; VCH: Northamptonshire: Vol IV, 1937, p247)

Record last edited

Dec 18 2023 3:17PM