Church of St Margaret

Details

SP 39 NE STOKE GOLDING CHURCH WALKS (North side)

9/104

8.3.63 Church of St. Margaret

GV I

Parish church. An early C13 church was refashioned and enlarged between Circa 1290 and Circa 1340. Dressed freestone blocks and lead covered roofs of low pitch. West tower, 4-bay nave with south aisle and 2-bay chancel with south chapel of the same build as the nave aisle. West tower: Early C14, 3 stages marked by offsets, angle buttresses die into the third stage; there is a fretted frieze beneath a hollow moulded parapet string containing sculptured heads, and immediately above this, at each corner and in the centre of each face is a small gargoyle, and above these an openwork parapet of quatrefoils. Recessed octagonal spire with roll-moulded angles and 3 tiers of lucarnes, each a simple quatrefoil opening (c.f. Church of All Saints, Ratcliffe Culey, Witherley C.P.; Church of St. Michael, Fenny Drayton, Witherley C.P.). Pointed west window of 2 trefoil-headed lights and Y-tracery with trefoil cusping in the spandrel; roll moulded surround and ogee-moulded hood. Immediately below the window is a blocking. 2-light belfry windows with trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a single reticulation above. The south side of the church was added Circa 1290-1310 and has 6 pointed 3-light windows alternating between (from the left) Geometrical tracery of three circles containing quatrefoils, and cusped intersecting tracery. The easternmost window has, in contrast to the others, ogee-headed lights with quatrefoils above. All have concave quoter-round moulded surrounds and a continuous roll and fillet-moulded hood. There are buttresses at the bay divisions, and these were formerly surmounted by richly carved pinnacles, the stumps of which survive, being linked by an openwork parapet like that of the west tower. The pointed south door is on the right hand side of the west bay; it has 2 roll and fillet-moulded orders with foliated capitals, now heavily weathered, and a roll and fillet-moulded hood with mutilated stops. The north side was remodelled Circa 1320-40, and work appears to have begun at the west end. Of the five windows which pierce this front, the first (from the west) have lights and cusped intersecting tracery; the next 3 have cusped flowing tracery and are framed by 2 orders of convex quater-round mouldings. The 2 nave windows have ogee-moulded hoods terminating in carved heads whereas the 2 chancel windows have returned concave quoter-round hood moulds. To the west of the central nave window is a blocked pointed doorway with 2 orders of wave mouldings and similar hood-mould to its flanking windows. There are buttresses at the bay divisions and unlike the nave, the chancel has a moulded plinth; the whole of this side is provided with an ogee-moulded parapet string and low parapet with moulded coping. At the east end is an ambitious late C13 chancel window of 5 cinquefoil-headed lights with elaborate cusped Geometrical tracery, roll and fillet-moulded mullions, 2 keel-moulded outer orders and a keel-moulded hood terminating in heads. A hollow chamfered gable coping contains carved fleurons and the apex is surmounted by a cross. The east end of the chancel is flanked by angle buttresses with panelled and crccketed pinnacles. To the left hand side is the east window of the south aisle; this too has 5 lights, the central one being shorter than the others; the outer lights have trefoils over and the inner light a circle containing a trefoil; concave quarter-round moulded surround and roll and fillet-moulded hood. Drainage spout to the left with a carved face. Interior: No structural division between nave and chancel. 4-bay nave arcade of Circa 1290; the piers have filleted multiple shafting and richly carved capitals with naturalistic foliage, oak leaves being much in evidence; 2 capitals incorporate heads including a knight and ladies wearing wimples. Roll and fillet-moulded pointed arches and hoods, the latter having sculptured heads or balls of foliage in the spandrels. C15/C16 nave and aisle roofs; cambered and brattishedtie beams surmounted by short stubby king-posts supported on brackets which spring from wooden corbels; a roll moulding extends along the soffits of the brackets and tie beams being interrupted in the centre of each beam by a carved boss. The bosses of the aisle are of better quality than those of the nave. C19 arch-braced collar roof over chancel. Fixtures and fittings: Octagonal font of Circa 1340-50 on shafted base; panels around the sides of the basin depict window tracery, which dates the piece, and standing figures including St. Margaret, the donor, St. Katherine and a bishop. In the south wall of the aisle is a small recess with pointed arch and trefoil cusping, perhaps for an image. Next to it is a segmental pointed arch tomb recess with hood-mould and concave quarter-round moulded surround. The sills of the windows in the south aisle are linked by a continuous string. The east end of the aisle is now used as a vestry but a piscina in the south wall with a tall triangular head and crocketed hood suggests that it was a chapel originally. On the left hand side of the south aisle east window is a corbel carved as a man's head, surmounted by a short column; disturbance of the masonry on the right hand side of the window suggests that this was one of a pair; they were probably image brackets or light stands. C19 screen of Perpendicular character between nave and chancel. In the north wall of the vestry is the external face of a lancet window, an indication that the core of a C13 church survives. Monuments: Late C13 incised sword, possibly commemorating Sir R. de Champaigne. Tablet to Henry Firebrace, died 1690; drapery around the side and palm leaves on top beneath a cornice, the whole surmounted by a pedestal with fishscale decoration from the top of which leaps a flame. B.O.E. pp. 395-6.

Listing NGR: SP3977697265

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

188235

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Williamson, E, The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland, (1984), 395-6

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