St Margarets - Church of St Margaret

High and remote in the hills between the valleys of the Dore and Monnow stands the humble little St Margarets Church (Historic Churches Trust), with rough stone walls, domestic looking square headed windows, an ungainly wooden bell cote.

It contains what Pevsner describes as one of the treasures of Herefordshire. This is a rare survival of a rood screen complete with loft or more accurately, a rood-loft resting on posts, for there is no room here for the usual screen. Such lofts are not often seen in English Churches, but several are still to be found in small churches over the Welsh border.

The loft of St Margaret's dates from about 1520, and is enriched with the most delicate and intricate carving. All it lacks to remind us of what almost all medieval churches once possessed and have since lost is the rood itself the great Crucifix with attendant figures of the Blessed Virgin and St John which surmounted every screen, and of which not one single example survived the destructive zeal of the Reformers. The stone staircase in the thickness of the wall giving access to the loft still remains, and the whole structure almost blocks the low Norman chancel arch. The roofs are ancient,