St Margaret's, Corsley, is the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

Corsley Corsley is a hamlet and Civil parishes in England, civil parish west of Warminster in Wiltshire, England. The parish is on the county border with Somerset; the Somerset town of Frome is about to the northwest. The largest settlement in the pari ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England. In 1968 the church was designated as

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. The church was built in 1833 by John Leachman on the site of an earlier church. The previous church had been dedicated to St James from the 16th to 18th century. The new building has a simple plan: a wide nave without aisles, a

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

under the same roof of Welsh slate, and a tall west tower. Its design and layout are similar to another of Leachman's churches in Wiltshire,

Christ Church, Warminster Christ Church is an Anglican church building serving a parish on the southern side of Warminster, Wiltshire, England. History The church was built in 1830–31 to the designs of John Leachman, at the instigation of William Dalby, vicar of the pa ...

; while Christ Church has been repeatedly extended and altered throughout its history, St Margaret's is substantially unaltered and thus remains close to his original plans. There is a west gallery on four

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

pillars, and the

Royal Arms The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, also referred to as the royal arms, are the arms of dominion of the British monarch, currently Charles III. They are used by the Government of the United Kingdom and by other The Crown, Crown instit ...

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

. The tower has six bells, of which three are 18th-century. A clock was added to the four-stage tower around 1885. There was a parson at Corsley in the mid-13th century. At first the church was subordinate to the St Denys' Church, Warminster, parish church of St Denys at Warminster, some to the southeast, but by 1415 Corsley was an independent parish. The first record of dedication to St Margaret of Antioch is from 1786. Furnishings which survive from the earlier church are the pulpit (c. 1700), painted benefaction boards and several monuments. Since 2007, Corsley parish – including a 1903 chapel of ease, St Mary's Church, Temple, Corsley, St Mary's Church at Temple – has formed part of the Cley Hill benefice.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corsley, St Margaret Church of England church buildings in Wiltshire Grade II listed churches in Wiltshire Churches completed in 1833 19th-century Church of England church buildings