St Margaret

The church's architecture is but a modest foil to the outstanding 20th and 21st centyrt fittings including opus sectile panels by Powell, 1901. 

The foremost donor was Edward Holt, brewer, of Woodthorpe. In 1894, when he was considering building a holiday home at Windermere, he had visited the woodcarver Arthur W Simpson at his Gill Head workshop. Over the next quarter century, mostly to the designs of Dan Gibson, Simpson furnished St Margaret's. Their work is entirely un-Gothic, horizontal in emphasis without pointy bits, decorated with Renaissance putti and beautifully carved roses, grapes, thistles, and oak leaves, and executed in light unstained oak. 

The altar was lost in the fire. The screen is now at the west end, in memory of Holt's son Joseph, was installed in 1920 to a Gibson design of the 1890s. The figures of Joseph Holt and St Margaret were carved by William Aumonier. To avoid obscuring the west window the rood group itself, which surmounted the screen, has been placed over the northwest vestry. 

In place of Simpson's screen now hangs a rood painted on glass by Graeme Wilson. Christ is draped on the cross rather than nailed to it. By Wilson also the forward altar, with glass sides, and a painting of 1994 acting as the Lady Chapel reredos. Mary is robed in swirling scarlet, the boy Christ is naked. Gordon Thorne's new organ case incorporates an aumbrey by Wilson; the front cover is by Wilson too.

The west window is by Ward & Hughes in memory of 2nd Earl of Wilton. The family are still buried north of the church. Shrigley & Hunt windows of various dates on the north side, plus one by Francis Skeat, 1963. The south window in the chancel is from 1978, dedicated to a former librarian of John Rylands Library in Manchester: two early woodcuts are reproduced, and among early printers' monograms is that of Wippell. By the organ, by Meg Lawrence in 1987, is Christ the carpenter and Mary, both modelled on modern people, and leaded in irregular hexagons.