Church Of St Martin Cum Gregory

Church of St Martin cum Gregory, York

Parish church, now public hall. The building comprises a two-bay chancel with north and south chapels, a two-bay aisled nave with clerestory, north vestry, and west tower.

The nave dates to the 11th century, with early 13th-century north and south arcades. The mid-14th-century north aisle retains a 13th-century north doorway. Around 1430, the chancel, chancel chapels and arcades were rebuilt, retaining part of the early 14th-century south chapel east wall. The south side was rebuilt at this time, retaining a late 14th-century south porch doorway and upper storey window. The west tower was rebuilt during this campaign. A late 15th-century chancel arch and nave clerestory were subsequently added. In 1655, a north porch was added, and around 1677 the west tower was refaced in brick. During the 18th century, the north and south aisles were reroofed and the nave and north aisle ceiled. In 1844–45, the tower's upper stage was rebuilt and a vestry and anteroom formed at the west end of the north aisle; this work was carried out by JB and W Atkinson. An 1894 restoration included reroofing the chancel.

The building is constructed of dressed limestone with some gritstone, incorporating Pre-Conquest fragments. The east end gables and south aisle west gable are built up in brick. The tower is refaced in orange-red brick in English garden wall bond, with ashlar quoins and dressings. Roofs are of lead, tile and slate.

The exterior presents a triple-gabled east end, with the chancel and north chapel on a chamfered plinth and the south chapel on a moulded plinth. Buttresses with offsets articulate the walls, with the north angle buttress displaying a decaying gargoyle. The north chapel window contains five cinquefoiled lights with trefoil-headed panel tracery in a two-centred head. The south chapel window has three ogee-headed trefoiled lights beneath cusped reticulated tracery, in a chamfered two-centred head with hoodmould. On the north side, the chancel chapel extends four bays articulated by buttresses with offsets and decaying gargoyles. Three-light windows similar in detail to that at the east end sit over a moulded sillstring. Beneath the easternmost window is a partly buried blocked window of two ogee-headed trefoiled lights in a chamfered square head. A coved cornice carved with bosses sits beneath the parapet. The aisle stands on a chamfered plinth. A coped and gabled porch projects towards the west end with a chamfered two-centred arch; within, a reset doorway with two-centred arch sits beneath a nailhead hoodmould. Windows are of three trefoiled lights with cusped reticulated tracery in two-centred heads over chamfered sillstring.

On the south side, the chancel chapel extends four bays separated by buttresses with moulded offsets. Windows are of three cinquefoiled lights with panel tracery—some renewed—in two-centred heads, beneath hoodmoulds. A chamfered cornice and parapet with moulded coping continues across the south aisle. The aisle stands on a moulded plinth with three buttresses bearing moulded offsets, two with defaced armorial shields and gargoyles. The westernmost bay has a twentieth-century glazed door in a chamfered round-arched doorway, beneath a low window of two ogee-headed trefoiled lights in a chamfered square head. Two windows to the east have three cinquefoiled lights and panel tracery in two-centred heads with hoodmoulds. The three-stage west tower has quoins and embattled parapet, standing on a chamfered plinth incorporating part of a Pre-Conquest cross shaft. The west face has a first-stage window of three cinquefoiled lights and panel tracery in a two-centred head. The second stage has a square-headed window of two lights in a quoined chamfered surround. The belfry has openings of paired cinquefoiled lights in two-centred heads with louvres; the south one is blocked and the north one incorporates a clock face. The north aisle west end has a two-light window similar in detail to those in the north wall, over a chamfered sillstring returned on the north wall.

The interior features north and south chancel arcades of two-centred arches of two chamfered orders on octagonal pier and responds with moulded capitals and bases. The two-centred chancel arch has two hollow chamfered orders which die into the wall. The wall above the north chapel arcade has a hollow chamfered eaves string carved with leaves and flowers. The north and south chapels have two-centred arches of two chamfered orders on half-octagonal responds with moulded capitals and bases; the outer order of the south arch dies into the wall. The nave north arcade has two-centred arches of two chamfered orders, the inner on a cylindrical centre pier with nailhead capital and moulded base, springing from corbel shafts with moulded capitals; the outer order continues as the respond and terminates in a run-out stop. The nave south arcade is similar but the outer order is broach-stopped over the pier and responds. Above and at the east end of both arcades, rectangular openings to the original rood loft are exposed. Three clerestory windows on each side have three cinquefoiled lights in square-headed surrounds above chamfered sillstring. The two-centred tower arch has two chamfered orders, the inner springing from half-octagonal responds with moulded capitals, the outer terminating in broach stops. The renewed chancel roof panelling incorporates a circular moulded panel enclosing a septfoil. The north and south chapel roofs are panelled with moulded beams and cambered ties, the north one supported on nineteenth-century arched braces with mouchette tracery in spandrels. The nave roof is panelled with moulded beams, moulded and cambered ties, and painted bosses, those in the centre bearing heraldic shields. The north aisle roof is ceiled; the south aisle roof is ceiled at collar level above cased tie beams.

In the south chapel east wall is a tall moulded recess with an arched head, partly masked by a later monument. In the north aisle north wall is a tomb recess beneath a flattened pointed arch of two moulded orders. In the south aisle west wall is a reset stoup with a half-octagonal bowl on a tapered base.

Fittings include a 15th-century font with octagonal bowl, stem and base, and a font-cover of late 17th or early 18th-century date. A 1636 panelled hexagonal pulpit sits on a late nineteenth-century carved base and plinth, bearing the painted inscription 'Preach the Word in season and out of season'. A William and Mary hatchment hangs over the tower arch. The communion rails date to 1753, and a clock to 1680. Eighteenth-century breadshelves and an eighteenth-century reredos are present, together with a 1749–51 altarpiece comprising a triptych reredos with Commandment board flanked by The Lord's Prayer and The Creed. A late eighteenth-century benefaction board and a poor box—probably nineteenth-century with an eighteenth-century backboard inscribed with a quotation from Acts 20:35—are also retained.

The stained glass includes a memorial window to William Peckitt, 'glass painter and stainer' (died 1795), in the westernmost window of the north chancel chapel, 'designed and erected' by his widow. The easternmost window of the north aisle has a window by Peckitt dated 1792, featuring a female figure symbolising the Resurrection in the centre light, with figures of St John the Baptist and St Katherine in flanking lights, surviving from a chantry chapel founded by Richard Toller, merchant, around 1330.

The church was united with Holy Trinity, Micklegate in 1953.