Church Of Saint Martin

Church of Saint Martin

A chapel of ease that later became the parish church, now redundant. The building dates from the 12th century and was altered probably in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was partly rebuilt and enlarged in 1866 by Samuel Pountney Smith, then reduced in size in 1973 when most of the 1866 work was demolished.

The church is constructed of dressed red sandstone with ashlar dressings, with limewashing remaining on the east side. The 19th-century work uses dressed yellow and red sandstone. The roof is plain tile. The plan consists of a nave and chancel in one.

The demolished 1866 work comprised a chancel, west tower and south porch. This work incorporated the former and present nave and chancel as a south aisle and chapel. The surviving structure has a chamfered plinth and parapeted gable ends with copings and truncated finials. The west gable end has gabled kneelers.

The south side features a large buttress with chamfered offsets between the nave and chancel, offset to the right, with a 19th-century buttress to the left. There are three square-headed windows: the right-hand window with two lights and the left-hand windows with three trefoil-headed lights, all with chamfered reveals. The right-hand window dates to the 14th or 15th century while the left-hand windows are 19th century. A chamfered round-arched 12th-century priest's doorway with a boarded door is present. A 19th-century south doorway to the left has a continuously-moulded arch with hoodmould incorporating carved stops and a boarded door with wrought-iron strap hinges.

The north side was rebuilt in 1866 with a three-bay former nave arcade consisting of octagonal piers with chamfered bases and moulded capitals supporting double-chamfered arches. There are 20th-century three-light windows. A blocked chamfered arch to the left formerly connected the chancel and south chapel. Remains of a 19th-century chamfered tower arch and a fragment of the former 19th-century chancel with a chamfered-arched window and buttress adjoin to the north-west and north-east respectively.

The west end, rebuilt in 1866, features chamfered round-arched windows with spokes dividing six trefoil-ended lights. A boarded door to the left with chamfered reveals formerly led to the tower stair. The east end window has two trefoil-headed lights with a quatrefoil in the apex and chamfered reveals.

The interior has a 19th-century trussed-rafter roof on the south side supported on wooden corbels with a lower wooden wall plate. The north arcade remains blocked as on the exterior. The 19th-century windows and south door have chamfered rear arches.

The church contains good carved wooden fittings made by a 19th-century vicar, Reverend E.D. Poole. These include a carved wooden altar table on a low dais with a carved front and reredos with flanking creed, Lord's Prayer and commandment boards. There are carved wooden choir stalls, a lectern and pulpit with pierced traceried panels, and wooden pews of 1866. A probably 16th-century octagonal stone font with a moulded top, 19th-century base and 19th-century wooden cover with wrought ironwork is present. A probably 17th-century oak parish chest with a single lock survives. A royal coat of arms, painted on canvas, hangs to the left of the south door. A pair of painted wooden benefactors' boards on the east wall record Thomas Matthews and Thomas Shore as churchwardens, dated 1794, and William Thompson and William Kent as churchwardens, dated 1841.

An early 14th-century carved stone coffin slab monument consists of a bust of a man above a foliated cross set in a panel with rounded base and crocketed ogee canopy above.

Preston Gubbals was formerly a chapelry of Saint Alkmund, Shrewsbury, and takes its name from Godebold, the priest in charge at the time of the Domesday survey. The 1866 rebuilding cost £1,600. The walls of the former nave, chancel and tower still remain standing to approximately one metre high to the north. The church is now invested in the Redundant Churches Fund.