Church Of St Martin

SJ 79 SE SALE CHURCH LANE (west side)

3/160 Church of Saint 11.11.66 Martin

G.V. II*

Church. 1714 for Joshua Allen with baptistery of 1874 by W.H. Brakspear and tower of 1887 by George Truefitt for Sir Williams Cunliffe Brooks. Ashlar and timber framing with graduated slate and clay tile roofs. Wide nave with west gallery, south porch, north baptistery and chancel with adjoining tower and vestry to south, organ chamber to north. 4-bay nave with porch (largely of 1887) in bay 1 in the same style as the tower top. The other bays have 3-light chamfered mullion windows with semi-circular heads in a C17 manner. The bold square tower has a projecting plinth, 3 casement windows at low level, datestone and a timber-framed clock stage, most of the panels being open. It has a clock face, gables on each side with moulded barge boards and is crowned by an elaborate weather-vane. The east and west windows are of 4 and 5 lights with intersecting tracery. The octagonal baptistery with pyramidal roof is in a more conventional post-Puginian Victorian Gothic style. There is a series of headstones attached to the south wall dating from 1644. Interior: chancel panelled with box pew ends. Double hammer beam roof with convex curved wind braces, probably of 1714. C16 octagonal front wrongly inscribed 1304, on C20 shaft. C18 baluster-type font. Studded batten door from former church (probably 1304). There has been a church on the site since 850 AD and the site was a Saxon burial ground. R. Richards, Old Cheshire Churches, 1973.

Listing NGR: SJ7723892993