Church Of St Martin

History and Development

The Church of St Martin replaced a small medieval chapel dedicated to St Margaret, which was dependent on the larger church at nearby Bletchley. The earlier chapel, wholly rebuilt in the late 16th century, was destroyed during the Civil War and apparently never reconstructed.

The present north aisle and tower were built between 1724 and 1730 under the patronage of local landowner Browne Willis, who purchased the site. The church was designed by Edward Wing and John Simmonds. Wing, who also built Aynho church in Northamptonshire, was dismissed in 1728 and replaced by Simmonds, about whom little is known. Part of the building costs were raised by subscription from local gentry and Oxford and Cambridge colleges, and these donors were commemorated in the ceiling decoration and stained glass. Willis's choice of a Gothic style was probably a deliberate statement of High Anglicanism in response to significant non-Conformity in the parish.

In response to population growth in Fenny Stratford in the early 19th century, the church was doubled in size in 1823 when a south aisle of equal dimensions was added to designs by Charles Squirhill, a Northamptonshire architect who rebuilt Abington church around the same time. Drawings show his addition was similar in style to the 18th-century church, with a classical three-bay arcade between the two parts, a southwest gallery, and a triple-decker pulpit.

This south addition was demolished and replaced in 1865–6 by William White (1825–1900), who transformed the 18th-century church into the north aisle and added a larger nave, chancel, and northeast organ chamber and vestry complex to its south. White, born in Northamptonshire, was a leading proponent of the Victorian High Gothic style and particularly noted for his use of decorative brick polychromy of the sort employed at St Martin's. This approach is best seen in his work at Lyndhurst, Hampshire (1858–69).

The church was further expanded in 1907–8 when John Chadwick, Surveyor to the local Urban District Council, added a south aisle and southeast chapel to White's work, copying his design in most details. A parish rooms complex was added to the south in the late 20th century, and some reordering also took place in the mid and late 20th century. The 18th-century north aisle ceiling collapsed in 1957 following water damage, with the loss of heraldry on the cornice.

Construction

The church is built of brick with stone dressings and has lead and tile roofs.

Plan

The church comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a tower at the west end of the north aisle, a chancel with north and south chapels and north vestry, a south porch, and a south parish rooms complex attached to the southeast chapel.

Exterior

Visually, the exterior falls into two distinct parts. The present north aisle and tower, which constitute the original church erected by Browne Willis in the early 18th century, represent an important early example of the Gothic Revival, though retaining many classical elements. The symmetrical three-bay north front has a central round-headed doorway with architrave, archivolt, and keystone, flanked by two windows with pointed heads. These windows have cusped intersecting tracery, a 19th-century addition that probably replaced plain intersecting tracery like that in the tower and the blocked east window (visible internally). A stone frieze and embattled parapet crown this elevation, an arrangement repeated on the tower.

The tower features a west door with an architrave similar to that on the north elevation, a rusticated inner surround, and a datestone of 1726. Above the door is a two-light window, with round clockfaces in the second stage and two-light Y-tracery bell openings in the upper stage.

The 1865–6 nave and chancel, and the 1907–8 south aisle built to match, are in a conventional Victorian High Gothic style. The windows have intersecting tracery with plate tracery cusping, with more elaborate tracery in the east window. The south aisle windows may be the nave south windows of 1865–6 reset in the early 20th century.

Interior

The interior, like the exterior, is notable for the mix of early 18th-century and Victorian Gothic Revival styles. The north aisle, representing the original church, retains its 18th-century flat panelled ceiling decorated with the coats of arms of the donors. Other decoration on the cornice has been lost. The former east window of the 18th-century church is visible behind an arch leading to the former organ chamber, now vestry, at the east end of the aisle.

William White's nave and chancel of 1865–6 displays forceful brick polychromy in red, white, and black. The patterns include chevrons, lozenges, diamonds, stars, and herringbone, with crosses on either side of the chancel arch. There is further stencilled decoration of small flowers, leaves, and other motifs on the arches and chancel walls. The 18th-century nave was formerly painted to match but this has been painted over.

The three-bay north arcade is in an Early English style with square foliate capitals on round piers and brick arches of two orders. There are no east responds and the arches die into the walls. The chancel arch is set on short shafts on conical corbels, and there is a large squint in the southeast respond. The arch to the north chancel chapel rests on foliate corbels.

The south aisle and south chapel by Chadwick of 1907–8 copy White's design, including the pier forms and polychromy, but the south arcade has four bays and the carving on the capitals is subtly different.

Fittings and Monuments

The northwest aisle window contains late 16th-century and 17th-century stained armorial glass of local families including the Stonors, Boleyns, and Fortesques, collected by Browne Willis, along with royal and episcopal arms and the arms of major donors to the church of circa 1730. This glass was formerly in the east window of the 18th-century church.

Two large 18th-century panel paintings of angels hang on the west wall of the nave. A monument to Browne Willis, who died in 1760 at Whaddon, stands in the north aisle.

The polygonal 19th-century font is in an Early English-influenced style with foliate brackets supporting the bowl and a tall, classicising two-tier cover with a polygonal spire. A 19th-century or early 20th-century chancel screen is present.

The church was refurnished circa 1950, and the pulpit, altar rails, organ case, and choir stalls at the rear of the church all date from this period, showing a very late use of Arts and Crafts Gothic tracery motifs. The traceried timber altar frontal may also date from this time.

The fine 18th-century ceiling in the north aisle is flat, panelled, and painted with the arms of donors to the church. The chancel roof has false hammerbeams and a canopy of honour over the east bay. The nave has an arch-braced crown post roof, and the south aisle a panelled wagon roof.