Church Of St Martin

The Church of St. Martin is a parish church dating to the 12th century, with subsequent development and a restoration in 1846. It comprises a nave, chancel, a north porch, a north vestry, and a west tower; a south aisle was added in 1870. The church is constructed of rubble flint, with traces of external rendering, freestone quoins and dressings, and slate roofs. The nave displays coursed rubble, with some sections showing herringbone patterning on the north side and reused Roman tiles. Remnants of blocked Norman windows, featuring chevron ornament, can be seen above the vestry door and along the east side of the porch. The north side of the nave has 2-light windows in a Perpendicular style. A fine, early 16th-century red brick porch features diaper patterns in blue headers, diagonal buttresses, a crow-stepped gable, and an empty niche with a hood-mould above the doorway. A holy water stoup is set into the western buttress, and blocked 2-light windows are found on each side. The porch’s arched doorway has multiple mouldings. The west tower comprises four stages, decorated with a chequerwork of stone and black knapped flint on the base and crenellated parapet. Diagonal buttresses, faced in freestone, are present at the west end. Gargoyles are spaced along the cornice below the parapet, and each face of the top stage has a high 2-light window with a transome and cusping. The stair turret projects on the south side. The 1870 south aisle, almost as large as the nave and with a separate roof, was built in the Perpendicular style, replacing an earlier aisle from 1846. The interior of the nave and chancel largely reflects the 1846 restoration, with fittings also dating to that period. The nave is high, with a coved cornice and a plastered barrel-vaulted roof; fleurons on the capitals of the chancel arch have detailing in colour. A fine, 15th-century octagonal font is present, with blank shields in roundels alternating with traceried panels. The east windows contain late Victorian memorial stained glass. C17 altar rails feature turned balusters. Part of the base of a rood screen appears to have been reused as a box-pew in the chancel. Two funeral hatchments are on the south wall of the chancel. Notably, two misericords are incorporated into the Victorian lectern and reading-desk, one depicting St. Martin dividing his cloak with a beggar, and the other the martyrdom of St. Thomas a Becket. These misericords originated elsewhere.