Church Of St Martin

The Church of St. Martin is a parish church that incorporates elements from the 10th, 11th, and 13th centuries. It was extensively restored in 1861 by James Fowler of Louth, in an Early English style. The church is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with tiled and slate roofs, featuring decorative ridge tiles. It includes a nave, aisles, a central tower, a small south transept, and an apsidal chancel.

The west wall has four lancet windows and a vesica-shaped window. The north aisle wall features two lancet windows, with a similar window in the east end. The three-stage tower is uniquely constructed from large pebbles, extending up to approximately 5 feet below the plain offset to the belfry stage. The paired belfry lights, characteristic of the 11th century, suggest a Saxon foundation for the tower’s base. A 19th-century lancet window is situated in the north wall of the tower's ground stage, its cill dating back to the 13th century. Above it is a 19th-century cinquefoil light, and paired lights to the belfry stage, featuring mid-wall shafts with cushion capitals. The tower is topped with a plain parapet. The apsidal chancel, built with square limestone, is buttressed and features a molded plinth, string course, and decorative eaves. It contains five lancet windows. The remains of an earlier chancel roof are visible on the east side of the tower. The south transept contains a lancet window in the east wall and gabled buttresses at the southeast angle. The south door is distinguished by a richly molded head and angle shafts with floriate capitals, a molded hood with leaf tops, and an enriched lancet above it with a molded head and hood. Two lancet windows are located on the south wall of the south aisle.

Inside, the two-bay nave arcades primarily date to the early 13th century. On the north side are slightly keeled quatrefoil clustered piers with annular abaci, double chamfered arches, and 19th-century molded hood and stops. On the south side, clustered circular piers have quatrefoil hobnail abaci, double chamfered arches, and octagonal responds. The aisle and nave walls are constructed of banded red facing brick and ashlar, incorporating chamfered polychromatic rear arches to the windows. Continuous tiled texts run along the top of the walls. The round-headed tower arches are plastered and plain. A white marble plaque in the south wall of the tower commemorates the 1861 restoration by George Henry Haigh, Esq., in a recessed panel with marble side shafts supporting a tympanum bearing the Haigh arms. The chancel incorporates blank arcading in a 13th-century style, springing from a chamfered string course with marble shafts and limestone arches with annular decorated capitals. The walls are lined with impressed glazed tiles below the string course, and above, fine red facing bricks are set with tiled borders and flush white marble lozenges, some inscribed to members of the Haigh family. The chancel and sanctuary feature richly tiled floors, and the reredos is intricately tiled. All fittings date to 1861, including a drum font lightly carved emulating 12th-century work. The rounded ashlar pulpit includes paired black marble collar shafts and foliate decoration. Beneath the chancel is the Haigh family mausoleum.