St Margaret, Northam
St Margaret, Northam
St Margaret of Antioch is a Grade I parish church on The Square, Northam, near Bideford in Devon, in the Diocese of Exeter and the Torridge Coastal Mission Community. Its tall west tower has long served as a seamark for shipping in Bideford Bay.
- Location
- Northam, Devon
- Country
- England
- County
- Devon
- City / town
- Northam
- Address
- The Square, Northam, Devon, EX39 1JL
- Postcode
- EX39 1JL
- Built
- C13 origins; nave and chancel mainly C15; north aisle 1593; restored 1849–65
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Margaret
- Diocese
- Exeter
- Parish
- Northam
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Perpendicular with earlier tower
- Materials
- Stone; wagon roofs to nave and transept
- Grid reference
- SS 448 291
- Opening hours
- The church is open to visitors: Monday 4.30pm to 5.30pm. Wednesday 10am to 11am. Thursday & Friday 10am to 12noon. Sunday 9.15am to 12noon. It is also open on some Saturdays and for advertised events. Access at other times can usually be possible by arrangement.
- Access
- Accessible toilets in church. Level access to the main areas
- Website
- http://www.tcmc.church/
Overview
The Historic England listing describes a church of mainly fifteenth-century date, with the lower part of the tower older, thoroughly restored between 1849 and 1865, in a fine position overlooking the sea. Devon’s Historic Environment Record first records the church in the mid thirteenth century and notes a font of the same date. The nave and chancel are held to be fifteenth-century; the base of the tower may contain earlier fabric. A five-bay north aisle and Lady Chapel were added in 1593. The mid-nineteenth-century restoration probably added the two porches and St George’s Chapel; a vestry was built on the north side of the tower in 1906–07.
The tower has diagonal buttresses, pinnacles and a polygonal stair turret, and houses a peal of eight bells. Wagon roofs cover the wide nave and a transept. A fourteenth-century “Kyrie” was discovered here. The parish history gives a benefice record of 1261 and a construction tradition around 1250. The church remains the Anglican parish church for Northam.