Church Of St Martin

The Church of St Martin is a church that was rebuilt in 1820, with a north aisle added in 1844 and further enlarged in 1887 for Henry Gladwyn Jebb by E. I. Hubbard of Rotherham. A tower was added in 1900 in memory of Jebb. The church is constructed from ashlar limestone and has slate roofs. It features a four-bay nave with a south porch, a north aisle, and a north-west tower, as well as a two-bay chancel with an apse.

The nave has a chamfered plinth and gabled buttresses on the east and west sides, with additional buttresses between the windows that have chamfered arrises. The gabled porch at the second bay has a chamfered round arch with a hoodmould, and a niche containing a figure of St. Peter beneath roll-moulded gable copings topped with a cross. The other bays have three-lancet-light windows with shafted jambs, mullions, and round-arched heads. The eaves feature a cornice, and the gable copings and crosses match those of the porch.

The tower, located at the rear and described from the west, has a west window similar to the south window, with a buttress on the right and a single lancet above. The tower has angle buttress strips and a round-arched window, with paired windows above it, all featuring hoodmoulds on brackets. There is a string course beneath the belfry arcade, which has shafts, louvres, and zig-zag-moulded round arches under shared hoodmoulds. A corbel table supports the corniced parapet, topped with a pyramidal lead roof and a weather vane.

The chancel is lower and narrower than the nave. Its south window matches that of the nave, and there is a sundial on the right inscribed 'Erected A.D. 1821'. Each face of the apse has a round-headed one-light window with hoodmoulds. The eaves are supported by a corbel table, and there is an east cross at the hip.

Inside, the north arcade from 1887 features scalloped capitals supporting round arches of two orders, with smaller end arches. The round chancel arch is of the same date. Notable monuments include one at the east end of the north aisle dedicated to John West (died 1659) and his wife Frances (died 1657), which has a Latin inscription in a recess beneath an archivolt. The north aisle wall contains two 19th-century wall monuments to the Knight family of Langold, while the south chancel wall has a monument to Fidelia Knight (died 1671), presented as an inscribed black slab in a bayleaf architrave. There is also a stone benefactions slab at the west end of the nave, along with various hatchments. More details about other monuments and the church's history can be found in C. Stocks' book, "Firbeck and the Three Estates," published in 1979, on pages 38-51.