The Church of St Martin

The Church of St Martin

This is a church built between 1903 and 1911, designed by George Fellowes Prynne and constructed by Braziers of Bromsgrove in a free Gothic style.

The exterior is built of rock-faced Alveley sandstone with Bath stone ashlar dressings and banding, beneath a tiled roof. The interior walls are of exposed red, white and buff brick with extensive limestone dressings.

The church has a wide nave with narrow side aisles, with the nave and chancel unified under a single, uniform roof. A chapel with an apsidal east end projects from the south side. Transepts of two bays are positioned to both sides, and the south side contains the lowest stage of an incomplete tower which has been converted into an entrance porch. The land slopes at the eastern end, which allows for an undercroft beneath the building. The baptistery has a semi-circular west end and is flanked by square projecting porches.

Bands of Bath stone encircle the building at the level of window sills and springing points, and at the gables. The window tracery is curvilinear with extensive use of mouchettes. The east end features angle buttresses with offsets and a central buttress which dies out below the east window. At undercroft level, four paired windows of two lights are set symmetrically. Above this is a panel of chequerboard ashlar squares in the two building stones. The east window surround includes a lower panel of blind tracery containing the arms of the see of Worcester at its centre, with the five-light east window and traceried head above. The top of the gable carries an ashlar panel with a Calvary carved in relief.

The south side has two two-light windows at its west end. The projecting porch, adapted from the intended tower's lowest stage, has setback buttresses and a two-light window to its west flank with a canopied niche immediately above. The south face contains the doorway with plank doors. The segmental arch has mouldings which die into deeply chamfered sides, and blind tracery fills the spandrels. A flat hood suspended by wrought iron brackets sits above the doorway. Carved figures of saints flank the door head on brackets, and a canopied niche above holds a figure of St Martin with his sword and cloak. The south-east corner of the tower contains a polygonal staircase turret. The adjacent transept has two gabled bays, each with a three-light window. The side chapel to the east has lancets along its south flank, continuing around the apsidal east end, with smaller lancets at undercroft level. The apse roof is topped with an iron finial, below which decorative lead flashing spreads in sinuous rays across the roof tiles. The projecting choir gallery behind the chapel has lancets to its upper wall and an undercroft doorway with a canted south-eastern angle containing small staircase lights. The chancel has two closely set lancets and a pair of undercroft windows.

The north flank is essentially similar to the south, except it lacks the projecting tower. A single-storey lavatory block with a gabled roof was added in the 1970s in the re-entrant angle between the nave and transept. The organ loft bay is gabled and projects east of the transept, with square-headed windows at various levels lighting the undercroft staircase. A polygonal staircase turret marks its north-east corner.

The west face features the semi-circular baptistery front at its centre, built in limestone ashlar with a flat roof. Full-height windows with deeply chamfered reveals and clear glass light this space. Flat-roofed porches at either side have rock-faced sandstone walling and ashlar door surrounds, each with a pair of plank doors with vertical glazing strips. Behind this rises a seven-light west window. The gable top carries a triple canopied niche with a statue of the Virgin and Child at the centre and angels at either side.

The bellcote sits on the ridge above the rood and is hexagonal in plan, with copper plates laid in a chevron pattern to its lower body. The upper body has timber supports and traceried panels with a miniature balustrade. The shallow-pitched copper-clad roof is crowned by crocketed pinnacles sheathed in bronze.

The interior uses contrasted bands of red brick and limestone to the piers and arches, with buff-coloured brick to the wall panels between windows, creating a muted polychromatic effect. A wooden barrel vault runs the full length of the church, with a panel of quatrefoil decoration above the rood. The nave contains five uniform bays, the two easternmost of which also connect to the transepts. Piers have shallow chamfers on the aisle sides and deep chamfers facing inward to the nave. The arches are composed of alternating voussoirs of limestone blocks and brickwork sections, with arch mouldings dying into the pier chamfers. A running hood-mould sits above each arcade. The lower bodies of the piers were originally panelled in wood but were removed in the mid-20th century due to rot and replaced with cement scribed in imitation of ashlar blocks.

The chancel is approached by shallow steps. A low panelled marble screen wall and wooden rood arch, bearing figures of Christ, the Virgin and St John, mark the junction. The raised chancel floor has inlaid marble panels. The altar has been moved forward from its original position against the east wall. The south wall contains a piscina and sediliae, while the north wall has two aumbry cupboards. The choir stalls have traceried front panels. Behind the stalls are corridors with glazed screens, above which sit a choir gallery on the south side and the organ loft on the north.

The fittings include a set of original electric lights with bulbs suspended from a corona in the nave and copper lanterns in the aisles and porch. A brass lectern in the form of an eagle dates from the church's opening. The pulpit, dating from the 19th century, was brought from the church of St Andrew, Worcester, after its demolition in 1949. The southern side chapel has a tessellated floor and a set of six stained glass windows by A J Davies, showing an angel in each lancet with the wording 'GLORY/O.LORD/BE.TO.THEE/MOST.HIGH/ALLELUIA/AMEN'.