St Margaret's Church, Hales

St Margaret’s Church stands in open fields south of Hales village in Norfolk, east of the A146 road. It is a redundant Anglican church built mainly in the 12th century with later medieval window changes. The church is noted for its round tower, semicircular apse and thatched roof, described as an almost perfect Norman building. Control of the church passed from St Olave’s Priory to secular hands at the Dissolution in the 16th century. Today it is cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust and listed in the National Heritage List for England at Grade I. The building’s exterior mixes flint, brick and conglomerate with limestone dressings and a thatched roof. The round west tower may date from the 11th century, with small lancet windows below and single-light bell openings above. The south doorway shows zigzag decoration on its arch, while the north doorway is more elaborate with six orders of shafts. The apse is framed by round-headed blind arcades and pilaster buttresses, and the east window has pointed arches with Y-tracery. Inside, the nave roof is 19th-century, and the chancel has a plain plaster vault. Visitors find a 15th-century octagonal font carved with lions, angels and Tudor roses. Remnants of medieval wall paintings survive on the nave walls, including Saint James the Great with his staff and a fragment of Saint Christopher carrying the Christ child. Above the chancel arch are two angels, and a painted frieze runs around the upper chancel wall. The tower arch is semicircular, and blocked windows appear in the tower and nave. The church’s quiet field setting and its largely intact Norman fabric make it a rare example of early English church architecture.