St Margaret, High Halstow
St Margaret, High Halstow
St Margaret’s is a Grade I parish church on Cooling Road, High Halstow, on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent. It stands at the highest point of the village in the Diocese of Rochester.
- Location
- High Halstow, Kent
- Country
- England
- County
- Kent
- City / town
- High Halstow
- Address
- Cooling Road, High Halstow, Kent, ME3 8SA
- Postcode
- ME3 8SA
- Built
- 13th century; enlarged late 15th century; west tower rebuilt 18th century
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Margaret
- Diocese
- Rochester
- Parish
- High Halstow with All Hallows and Hoo, St Mary
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Early English and Perpendicular
- Materials
- Flint ragstone with lead roof over nave; west tower of ragstone with red brick plinth, buttresses, quoins and parapets
- Grid reference
- TQ 779 752
- Opening hours
- To get access to the church when closed call at the Rectory next door. It's probably best to call in advance to ensure someone is here.
- Access
- Level access throughout. Level access to the main areas. Ramp or level access available on request
Overview
Historic England records a thirteenth-century church enlarged in the late fifteenth century, with the west tower rebuilt in the eighteenth century. The plan comprises a west tower, clerestoried nave with south porch and lean-to south aisle continued as a chapel, north aisle and chancel. Walls are flint ragstone with a lead nave roof; the tower mixes ragstone with a red brick plinth, buttresses, quoins and parapets. Interior features include three-bay thirteenth-century nave arcades with round piers, a Perpendicular tower arch, a fifteenth-century chancel arch, and an early thirteenth-century font with a plain square bowl on corner shafts. Dendrochronology has dated the roof to 1440–1475.
A church at High Halstow is recorded in Domesday and paid chrism to Rochester. The present fabric is mainly thirteenth- and fifteenth-century. The church remains in use in the combined parish of High Halstow with Allhallows and St Mary Hoo.