Chippenham has a lovely church - St Margarets. The church building dates
back to the 13th Century and included a chapel used
by the Knights Hospitallers. The Knights Hospitallers were an order of Knights
founded in the 12th Century to help sick pilgrims going to the Holy Land.
Chippenham was an important site for the them and they had one of their
preceptories here, with an infirmary, hall, chapel, etc. Sadly, these buildings
no longer survive, but parts of the cellars are believed to remain below
the Georgian School House which is nearly opposite the church. Parts of the
Norman church are still visible and you can see the outlines of early windows
in the North part of the choir and behind the main altar.
After a disastrous fire in 1446, much of the church was rebuilt.
The South porch dates from this time, as well as some of the poppy-headed
pews. The aisle and clerestory windows were rebuilt in Perpendicular style
after the fire. The wall-paintings are also 15th Century.
On March 23rd 1643, during the purges by Puritans, the church was visited
by William Dowsing who destroyed the stained glass windows and covered the
frescoes with whitewash. Internal alterations during the 17th Century included
the addition of a gallery across the West (Tower) end of the aisle, since
demolished.
Further major restoration was carried out in the 19th century. In 1885 the
chancel was rebuilt, a new East window installed and the floor tiled. The
choir-stalls date from this restoration. The nave was restored in 1893, including
replacement of the pillars along the South side (the North pillars are original).
The font also dates from 1893.
In the 20th century, the Tharp Chapel in the North aisle was constructed
by the Tharp family. It was dedicated by the Bishop of Ely in 1948. The inscription
round the chapel walls records the memory of John Tharp, killed in Algiers
in 1943.
Cleaning and restoration of the wall-paintings began in the 1970s. A rough
patch of the North wall in the Tharp Chapel shows where one of the wall-paintings
once hung. This was a large figure of St. Michael which had been carefully
restored and was in the process of being replaced when it accidentally fell
and smashed into pieces.
The church tower was restored in 1994, when the old stucco-work was removed
and replaced with a fine honey-coloured finish. The tower itself is a mixture
of clunch, flint and pebble rubble, there being no hard local stone available
nearby.