St Margaret's Church, Leicester

St Margaret's Church, Leicester, more formally the Prebendal Church of St Margaret's, Leicester, is a large late medieval Anglican parish church constructed on Anglo Saxon foundations in inner city Leicester, England. One of the five surviving medieval parish churches of Leicester Old Town, medieval tradition held it to be the mother church of the borough, its oldest place of Christian worship, perhaps dating back to 679. It is also the only one of the towns churches to be located extramurally (outside the now vanished Roman walls of Leicester). The large suburban and rural parish covered the territory of the Bishops Fee and was a prebendal peculiar of Lincoln between 1199 and 1879, retaining the title of prebendal church by convention since. Reconstructed at least four times in its history, most notably in the 15th century, the present structure was described by the antiquarians John Leyland and John Nichols as "the fairest parish church in Leicester" while Nicholas Pevsner noted that its vaulted double height south porch and the towers stair turret are both unique in Leicestershire. Today, thanks both to its monumental perpendicular tower and its location opposite Leicester's busiest bus station, it is one of the city's most recognisable historic structures. It is also noted across Leicestershire and the wider East Midlands for its large peal of 14 bells, ten of which have been in the tower since the 17th century. It is a Grade I Listed Building and a member of the Major Churches Network.