The church of ST. MARGARET stands in a very small churchyard at the northern end of the village. It consists of a chancel, nave, south aisle, west tower, vestry, and south porch. Except for the tower the church has been practically rebuilt within recent times, the chancel in 1855, the aisle in 1867, and the nave in 1880. The old church, judging from a drawing in the Aylesford Collection, consisted of chancel, aisleless nave (both probably of 13th-century origin), and the existing tower, and an 18th-century south porch. The modern walls are built of brickwork faced with ashlar, the roofs are of trussed rafters of steep pitch, covered with tiles, and the floors are tiled. The east tracery window of the chancel is of three trefoil lights with pointed arch and hood-mould, with head-stops. On the south side there are three lancet windows and a narrow doorway, probably 15th-century, with a segmental-pointed head of one splay carried down to moulded stops, restored but partly original. The north side has two lancet windows with hood-moulds, and a vestry with a window of two trefoil lights and a quatrefoil in the head. The lancet at the western end has a transom to form a low-side window, mostly restored but partly original. The south aisle has a pitched roof, and a porch at the west end with doors opening into the nave and aisle lighted by two trefoil lights on the west. The entrance has a pointed moulded arch, moulded capitals and bases with red sandstone shafts. The door to the nave has a pointed arch of two continuous orders, and that to the aisle a segmental-pointed arch of two moulded orders on moulded capitals and bases with red sandstone shafts. The aisle is lighted by a tracery window of two trefoil lights, and one of three lights; there is a similar one of three lights at the east end, with a pierced trefoil in the gable. The north wall of the nave is divided by buttresses into three bays with a tracery window of two trefoil lights, a pointed arch and hood-mould in the east bay, and similar windows, but of three lights, in the other two bays. The tower is built of sandstone ashlar and dates from the latter part of the 15th century; it rises in two stages, with a moulded plinth, an embattled parapet, and diagonal buttresses, in five stages at the western angles and of three stages on the eastern corners, splayed on their west faces. The west door-way has a four-centred head of one wide splay carried down to moulded stops, and immediately above is a window, in two chamfered orders, of three trefoil lights with a pointed arch and hood-mould with head-stops; above is a clock dial. The belfry windows on all four faces have four-centred heads, of two splays, with two trefoil lights. On the south face there are two loop-lights to the tower staircase, and a small rectangular light to the ringingchamber.
The chancel (27 ft. 10 in. by 15 ft.): the east window has a moulded rear-arch on attached shafts, moulded capitals and bases, and hood-mould with foliated stops. On the south side there is a piscina and sedilia with cinquefoil heads and hood-moulds. The lancet windows have wide-splayed jambs and pointed rear-arches. Fixed to the wall is a brass, 24 in. high, with two figures in civilian costumes of c. 1500, assigned by a modern inscription (1856), to Benedict Medley (d. 1503) and his wife. (fn. 47) Also on this wall is a memorial to Thomas Morse, Rector of Ashow and Whitnash, died 1784. On the north side there is a wide pointed entrance arch of two splays to the vestry and organ. Fixed on this wall is an incised brass with traces of red and black enamel, of a cleric holding a chalice with a paten, and an inscription to Richard Bennet, M.A., rector, who died 8 February 1531(2). There is also a mural tablet to Nicholas Greenhill, for 40 years rector of the parish, died 1650. Below is a small brass inscription by R. Boles who was Greenhill's successor, as follows:
This Greenhill Periwiged with snow
Was leauild in the Spring
This Hill the Nine and Three did know
Was Sacred to his King
But he must Downe, although so much Divine
Before he rise never to set but shine.
Ri. Boles Mr. Art. 1689.
Opposite there is a similar small brass by the same hand, with a long epitaph written by Boles to himself and dated 1689.
The nave (52 ft. 5 in. by 17 ft. 8 in.) has two small dormer lights in the trussed rafter roof, and the aisle is separated from the nave by two pointed arches springing from responds and a shaft with foliated capitals. The pointed tower arch is of two continuous chamfers, and the chancel arch of two orders is supported on short coloured marble shafts, with floriated capitals, resting on carved corbels. The pulpit is on the south side of the arch and has carved trefoil panels, coloured marble shafts, and an octagonal stem of coloured marble shafts with carved capitals. The font stands to the west of the south door and is dated 1848.
The south aisle (28 ft. 9 in. by 14 ft.) has a trussed rafter roof, with a small rose window in the west gable. The windows have chamfered pointed rear-arches and the door to the porch a segmental one.
The tower (10 ft. 3 in. by 10 ft.) has a splay in the south-west angle for the staircase doorway which has a four-centred head and is fitted with its original door hung on strap hinges. The west door has a four-centred rear-arch and has an early counterboarded door. The tower is curtained off for use as a vestry.
There are two bells by Mathew Bagley, 1680, and four by J. Taylor, three of 1892 and one of 1896. (fn. 48)
The registers begin in 1679.