Church Of St Martin

The Church of St. Martin is a parish church dating from the mid-15th century, with significant restoration work carried out in 1847 and 1870. It is constructed primarily of flint and carstone, featuring ashlar dressings, and has leaded roofs. The church comprises a west tower, nave, aisles, and a chancel.

The three-stage west tower has angle buttresses to the belfry stage and a plinth with a pointed trefoil arcading. It features an arched west door within a square 19th-century surround and a four-light window above. There is a two-light ringing chamber window to the south and a single-light window to the west. The belfry windows are also two-light, and the tower is topped by a battlemented parapet with trefoil arcading. A gabled south porch, dated 1852, has angle buttresses and a carved parapet.

The south aisle incorporates stepped flushwork buttresses that lead to a flushwork crenellated parapet adorned with pinnacles displaying crockets and finials. Three-light, four-centred panel tracery aisle windows are set between the buttresses, each with stepped transoms. The clerestory features windows of three lights, with rising super-mullions and a scissor motif, all with brick relieving arches. Rebuilding of the nave parapet took place. The chancel has been rendered and includes two three-light windows similar to those in the aisle. An arched priest's door and crenellated flushwork parapet are also present, along with a five-light east window that elaborates on the aisle window design.

A two-story vestry, built around 1500, obscures part of the north chancel, featuring a gabled pantile roof and a trefoil lancet window to the east with a molded hood on labels. The north aisle has a single-light reticulation unit window and a two-light window. A two-light window is also present in the east gable head of the nave, set under a square hood on labels.

The interior features a tall, heavily molded tower arch resting on polygonal bases. A five-bay arcade includes lozenge piers with fillets to the east and west, with double-chamfered arches. Capitals are present only on the south side, with windows above the apex of the arches. The church possesses a hammerbeam roof with alternating braced and unbraced hammer-posts sculpted as angels; molded arched braces extend to collars, and there is a single tier of molded butt purlins and ridge piece. The aisle roofs are characterized by arched braces to the principals, with pierced tracery spandrels.

A chancel screen has two bays of three lights, flanking a central arched opening; it features a solid dado with trefoiled arches and a painted flower scroll. The central opening is double cusped with arched tracery above a curving transom. The chancel roof includes short hammer-posts with arched braces to corbels.

A notable feature is the early 12th-century font, which has a square bowl supported by five columns, each with a roll capital and base. The bowl is decorated with a continuous arcade of arches supported by cushion capitals, circular engaged columns, and molded bases, incorporating dog-tooth decoration and figurative carvings on each face depicting scenes of the Nativity, the visit of the Magi, the Baptism of Christ, and Adam and Eve.