Church Of St Martin

The Church of St. Martin is a parish church dating from 1893, designed by R. H. Fowler, and incorporating some fragments from the late 12th century. It is constructed from green sandstone rubble with limestone ashlar dressings, and has slate roofs with stone coped gables, decorative red ridge tiles. A tall chimney with chamfered sides stands to the north, and a gabled west bellcote features a chamfered, pointed opening containing a bell, with a hood mould, ornate label stops, and a finial.

The church consists of a nave, west bellcote, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a chancel. The west front features buttresses defining the north and south aisles, with a string course below a pair of lancet windows, each with a smaller lancet beside it. A vesica window sits above, all with hood moulds and label stops. The north side of the nave has a pair of lancets flanked by single lancets, while the east end of the north aisle displays a re-used late 12th century lancet. The north side of the chancel has a rectangular window with two cusped, ogee-headed lights and a hood mould. The east end has a pointed window with two cusped, ogee-headed lights, geometrical tracery, and a hood mould. The south side of the chancel includes two rectangular windows, each with two cusped, ogee-headed lights and a hood mould. A pointed priests' doorway is on the west side, with a broad ashlar surround, plank door, and hood mould. The east end of the south aisle of the nave has a 19th-century lancet. The south side of the nave contains a single lancet and a pair of lancets to the west. A gabled porch has a pointed doorway with a continuously chamfered surround and a hood mould, and an inner pointed doorway with a continuously chamfered surround, hood mould, head label stops and double plank doors.

Inside, the church has 3-bay north and south arcades from the 19th century, with pointed, double-chamfered heads, round piers, each with four detached shafts, moulded capitals, and corbelled responds. Notably, the easternmost pier in the south arcade is re-used late 12th-century fabric from the demolished church of Cawkwell, presenting as an octagonal, chevroned pier with four attached columns. A pointed, double-chamfered chancel arch has a hood mould and corbelled responds. The priests' doorway features an inner segmental head. The interior also includes 19th-century pews, an altar, reredos, lectern, pulpit, vestry screen, and wagon roofs. Monuments present including one ornate vesica-shaped panel on a rectangular field of orange-streaked marble, with a trefoiled arch supported on columns and flower and foliate motifs, commemorating Reading Grantham, who died in 1859, and sculpted by P. Belton. Another monument uses orange-streaked marble, is rectangular with eared and shouldered corners containing flower heads, and commemorates Margaret Henry, whose death is undated but likely occurred in the mid 18th century. A large 13th-century drum font rests on an octagonal pedestal with four attached shafts.