Church Of St Martin

Church of St Martin

A parish church of mixed periods, with elements from the late 11th or 12th century, 13th century, and 18th century. The building comprises a nave with south porch and a slightly narrower chancel.

The exterior walls are partly rendered flint with vestigial herringbone courses and stone dressings, beneath a plain tile roof. The nave is plinthless and has two buttresses at its west end with a lean-to structure between them carrying a 19th-century pointed-arched light. Above rises a half-hipped roof with a rectangular shingled belfry to its top, crowned by a splay-footed shingled octagonal spire with weathervane. The belfry has louvred two-light windows to each face. The south elevation has three broad round-headed leaded windows, with one to the west and two to the east of the porch. The north elevation of the nave has three broad round-headed windows in unchamfered rendered surrounds.

The south porch is an 18th-century addition built of chequered red and grey brick with a plain tile roof and brick plinth. A dentilled brick eaves cornice runs around it. The roof is hipped to the front. The porch has no windows but opens with an elliptical-headed outer doorway flanked by a pair of half-height iron gates. The inner doorway is rectangular with a moulded wooden architrave and tall 18th-century double doors, each of four fielded panels. The floor is of black and white marble.

The chancel is plinthless with eaves matching those of the nave but at a lower ridge. Its south-west elevation has a large round-headed window in an ashlared architrave with raised outer verges, and a narrow plain-chamfered pointed-arched lancet. A round-headed window of the late 11th or 12th century on the south-east is blocked, as is a round-headed doorway beneath and to the right of the south-west window. The east gable end has large stone quoins and a chamfered offset roughly halfway up the wall. The east window is pointed-arched with two cinquefoil-headed lights and a sexfoil, without an overall architrave. A tall pointed-arched plain-chamfered north lancet also lights the chancel.

The interior reveals significant medieval carpentry. A pointed 13th-century chancel arch has plain chamfering to the east and hollow-chamfered imposts. Its west face incorporates voussoirs carved with embattling, derived from a late 11th or 12th-century arch or doorway, and features short re-used angle shafts. A low pointed-arched 13th-century west doorway displays continuous double-quirked roll moulding to its west face, visible from within the 19th-century west lean-to.

The nave has a restored crown-post roof with three slender moulded octagonal crown posts (the eastern one truncated), sous-laces, ashlar-pieces, and moulded cornice. A similar roof spans the chancel. The roof structure demonstrates careful restoration respecting its medieval form.

Among the fittings is an octagonal stone font with panelled sides, octagonal stem, moulded capital and base. The floor is of pammet. An 18th-century gallery occupies the west end, standing on slender octagonal posts with a frieze of sunk moulded panels, turned balusters, and moulded rail. Royal arms dated 1689 are mounted above.

The church contains several monuments and memorial brasses. A monument on the south wall of the nave commemorates William Turner, died 1729, and features a round-headed inscription panel with fielded-panel pilasters flanked by inverted scrolls, moulded plinth breaking forwards on consoles, shaped base plate with palm fronds, and moulded broken-based segmental pediment bearing coats of arms and achievements. A cartouche on the east wall of the nave, south of the chancel arch, commemorates Ann Papellon, died 1693, and is signed by Joseph Helby; it displays two grieving cherubs and an urn to the top, two winged cherubs' heads to the base, and a shield over a winged skull crowned with ivy. A brass to Mary Heyman, died 1601, and another to Alexander Hamon, died 1613, are mounted on the south wall of the chancel. A monument to Lionel Mackinnon, died 1854, on the north wall of the nave, bears a parchment scroll with chamfered cornice, triangular pediment carved with military trophies and antefixae, and black marble back plate, signed T. Gaffin. A final monument to Thomas Papillon, died 1838, also on the north wall of the nave, comprises a tablet with plain inscription panel, recessed side panels with channel, moulded cornice, moulded plinth with three balls beneath it towards each end, and shaped black marble back plate with coloured coat of arms.