Chilmark, Wiltshire

I should have liked St Margaret of Antioch - the village is a gem, the location is perfect and the exterior is of interest - but I didn't. The Victorian restoration here was so savage that the soul of the church has been utterly destroyed. It's so depressing inside that I missed the Jacobean pulpit - although I think Mee must be overcompensating.

ST MARGARET. A handsome cruciform church of generally E.E. appearance. But the earliest part is a re-set doorway of c.1200, now in the W wall of the N aisle. Round arch and a goodly roll moulding. Then the chancel with lancets, small to the N, larger to the S; corbel-table. The crossing tower seems Dec from outside - see the bell-openings - but the crossing arches of three chamfers may well be before 1300. Quadripartite rib-vault with single-chamfered ribs rising awkwardly in the spandrels of the arches. The tower has a recessed broach-spire which was re-built c.1760. The S window of the S transept (three-stepped, cusped lancet lights under one arch) is apparently of the same date as the crossing. The N side is of 1856 throughout, including the aisle arcade. Perp S doorway with hood-mould on primitive busts. - PULPIT. Jacobean. - PLATE. Cup, 1576; Set, 1743.

Chilmark. One of its lanes leads us to the quarries that have supplied beautiful cream stone for many of the old houses, fine bridges, and vanished priories of Wiltshire, for its glorious cathedral at Salisbury, and for Chichester’s spire.

The fine church tower has a tapering spire and charming belfry windows; it is upheld by four arches and a vaulted roof. The doorway is 700 years old, and has at its sides two little men wearing pleated collars; one is crowned, and appears to be holding a stick and a drum. Through this doorway may have come for his christening little John de Chilmark, a mathematician and philosopher who in the 14th century was called the Archimedes of his age. In the church is a handsome Jacobean pulpit.

Flickr.