St Margaret's Church is a redundant

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church in the village of Hales,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands in open fields to the south of the village and to the east of the A146 road.

History

St Margaret's was built in the 12th century and, other than the addition of windows in the 13th and 14th centuries, it remains almost intact. With its round tower, semicircular

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

, and thatched roof, it is described as "an almost perfect

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

church". The church was controlled by

St Olaves Priory, Herringfleet Herringfleet Priory (also St Olave's Priory) was an Augustinian priory of Black Canons located in St Olaves, north-west of Lowestoft in eastern England. The site is in the county of Norfolk, although prior to 1974 it was part of the former S ...

until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century.Page W ed. (1975) 'Houses of Austin canons: Priory of Herringfleet', in ''A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2'', pp.100–101. London: Victoria County History.
Available online
at British History Online. Retrieved 17 March 2021.)

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

, brick and

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** Co ...

, some of which has been rendered. The dressings are in

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, and the roof is thatch. Its plan consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

with an

, and a west tower. The tower is round, and dates possibly back to the 11th century. In the lower part of the tower are small

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s, and around the upper part are single-light bell openings. The

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

is decorated with brick, flint and limestone chequerwork. The south doorway has two orders of shafts, and its arch is decorated with zigzags. In the south wall of the nave are two two-light windows containing Y- tracery, and between them is a blocked round-headed window, partly cut by a later lancet which is also blocked. Around the apsidal chancel are round-headed blind arcades in pairs, in some places pierced by lancets. Between the arcades are

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es. The east window has a pointed arch, and two lights with Y-tracery. The north wall contains a blocked round-headed window pierced with a lancet, which is also blocked, a single-light window, and a two-light window with Y-tracery. The north doorway is more ornate than the south, also with two orders of shafts, but six orders in the arch and more detailed decoration.

Interior

The nave has a 19th-century

waggon roof A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

; the chancel has a plain

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...

vault. In the chancel there are niches on each side of the east window, and a recess for an aumbry in the north wall. The chancel floor contains two memorial slabs. In the nave is an arch leading to the stairway to a former

rood A rood or rood cross, sometimes known as a triumphal cross, is a cross or crucifix, especially the large crucifix set above the entrance to the chancel of a medieval church. Alternatively, it is a large sculpture or painting of the crucifixion ...

screen. At the west end of the nave is a gallery. The tower arch is semicircular, and in the tower are two blocked round-headed windows. The octagonal

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

dates from the 15th century. Around the stem are carvings of four lions, the bowl is supported by

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

s carved with angels, and the faces of the bowl are decorated alternatively with

Tudor rose The Tudor rose (sometimes called the Union rose) is the traditional floral heraldic badge, heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the House of Tudor, which united the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The Tudor ...

s and with angels holding shields. On the nave walls are the remnants of wall paintings. One of these is of Saint James the Great holding a staff, and another fragment depicts

Saint Christopher Saint Christopher ( el, Ἅγιος Χριστόφορος, ''Ágios Christóphoros'') is veneration, venerated by several Christianity, Christian denominations as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Empire, Roman emperor Deciu ...

carrying the Christ child. Above the chancel arch are depictions of two angels, and around the upper part of the chancel wall runs a painted frieze.

References

External links