St Margaret, St Margarets

St Margaret’s is a Grade I parish church in the Black Mountains foothills of Herefordshire, in the Diocese of Hereford, known for a rare complete late medieval rood screen and loft.

Overview

Historic England records a parish church of possibly twelfth-century origins, substantially fifteenth- and sixteenth-century, of coursed rubble (still partly plastered) with weatherboarded bell turret and stone slate roofs. A bell turret is built into the west end of the nave; there is a chancel and a south porch dated 1924. The turret has a weatherboarded, jettied bell-chamber and a pyramidal stone slate roof. The chancel arch has a semicircular head and plain chamfered imposts. Mid-seventeenth-century altar rails with turned balusters survive in the chancel.

The listing highlights a splendid c.1500 rood screen and loft with coffering, a running acorn pattern, two tabernacles and heavily undercut panelling. Visit Herefordshire dates the oak screen to about 1520 as a rare survivor of the 1547 order to destroy such fittings. Sir John Betjeman wrote of finding the remote church and its screen ‘textured pale grey with time’; Simon Jenkins included it in England’s Thousand Best Churches. Stairs rise from the north-east of the chancel arch to the loft. The church stands nearly 800 feet above sea level and is open daily.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1266723
• Visit Herefordshire Churches: St Margaret’s