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St Margaret, Somerton, Suffolk

Location
(52°8′44″N, 0°38′43″E)
Somerton
TL 811 530
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Suffolk
now Suffolk
  • Ron Baxter

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Feature Sets
Description

St Margaret's has an aisleless nave with a blocked N doorway and a porch protecting the S doorway; a chancel with a long S chapel under a separate roof and a W tower. The N doorway indicates that the nave is 12thc., and the S doorway is a 13thc. modification. The brick and flint porch is 16thc. The chancel and its chapel are 14thc. Both E windows are Perpendicular, but of different dates. The E wall has been mortar rendered and inappropriate barge-boards added. To the N of the chancel is a lean-to of brick, roofed with the chancel. The W tower is Perpendicular, with diagonal buttresses and flushwork panels on the plinth. Construction is of flint with ashlar dressings. The only Romanesque sculpture is on the blocked N doorway.

History

The Domesday Survey records two holdings in Somerton. The first was given by William I to the abbot and monks of Bury St Edmund's; the other was held by Starcher under 'the glorious King Edward' as a manor, and was held by Roger from Robert fitzCorbucion in 1086. Both were small, and neither included a church or a priest.

Glem Valley United Benefice, i.e. Glemsford, Hartest with Boxted, Somerton and Stanstead.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Comments/Opinions

Bibliography
H. M. Cautley, Suffolk Churches and their Treasures. London 1937, 315-16.
D. P. Mortlock, The Popular Guide to Suffolk Churches: 1 W Suffolk. Cambridge 1988, 188-89.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Suffolk. Harmondsworth 1961, rev. E. Radcliffe 1975, 424.