Parish Church Of St Martin

Parish Church of St Martin, Liskeard

This is a large and important parish church with a complex architectural history spanning several centuries. The building incorporates some reused Norman fragments and was substantially enlarged during the 15th century, with the south chapel added in 1428 and the south chancel aisle in 1430. Further additions were made to the north from 1477. The Norman tower was repaired in 1675, with its doorway and some Norman fragments later incorporated into the present tower, which was rebuilt in 1903 by John Sampson of Liskeard. The church underwent major restoration in 1879 and 1890.

The walls are constructed of slatestone rubble with some granite ashlar, and have granite and freestone dressings. The roofs are covered with dry Delabole slate and sit behind embattled parapets. The church has a large and complex plan comprising a five-bay nave, three-bay choir chancel, west tower, north aisle with chantry chapel projections, south aisle, a three-bay Lady Chapel, north and south porches, and two twentieth-century vestries.

The three-stage embattled tower features offset corner buttresses and a three-centred arched doorway inscribed 1627, though the tower was otherwise rebuilt in 1903 with Perpendicular-style features including a large west window and paired louvred bell-stage windows with linked hoodmoulds beneath a machicolated parapet cornice. The church is eight bays in length plus the tower. Except for nineteenth-century east windows to the chancel and south aisle, the windows are fifteenth-century, mostly retaining their original outer frames, though the mullions and tracery are partly or wholly replaced from the nineteenth century. Thirteen consecration crosses mark various positions on the north and south aisles, and a sundial dated 1779 is fixed to the east side of the porch.

The south elevation features weathered buttresses dividing the bays, with angle buttresses at the corners. The two-storey south porch has a four-centred arched doorway with quatrefoils to the spandrels and a two-light cinquefoil-headed window above, flanked by empty statue niches, with a smaller niche containing a statue positioned above. The north elevation is articulated by alternate projecting bays, each containing four-light traceried windows. The north porch has a four-centred arched doorway with similar four-light windows above.

The interior is spacious and lofty with plastered or lime-washed walls. The arcade structure comprises fifteenth-century tall standard A-type granite arcades with four-centred arches: five bays flanking the nave, two bays flanking the choir, and three bays between the south aisle and the Lady Chapel. The arches to the choir and the east end of the south aisle spring from moulded responds set over reset carved Norman heads. Fifteenth-century stone vaults exist in the chantry chapels, and all windows have chamfered rear arches. Nineteenth-century waggon roofs have been installed; some carved fragments of fifteenth-century waggon roofs are displayed in the Lady Chapel.

The church contains numerous significant fittings and monuments. A Norman font bowl has been reset in the east wall as a stoup. There is a fifteenth-century piscina in the south aisle and a sixteenth-century piscina in the north aisle at the east end. A sixteenth-century font is accompanied by a large Gothic-style font cover from 1917. A beautifully carved octagonal oak pulpit dates to 1636 and was created by Peter Short. A GR coat of arms dates to 1747, and nowy-headed painted panels with names of benefactors line the north porch. Pine pews date to 1856, and early twentieth-century Gothic-style choir stalls and memorial parclose screens from 1897 are present. Memorial benches with ends carved in sixteenth-century style furnish the Lady Chapel. The altar was created by J Sampson and features an oak top from Mount Hebron and front panels of olive wood from Gethsemane. A freestone reredos with blind traceried panels is set at the east end, with memorial windows featuring coloured glass to the east, south (except for one), and west ends.

The monuments are numerous and include a resited chest tomb lid under the reredos to Thomas Johnson, died 1666 aged 57; a monument to Dorothy, wife of Richard Roberts, Mayor of Liskeard, died 1697; a marble, slate and freestone aedicule with crest in the south wall of the Lady Chapel to John Trehawk, died 1710 aged 32; and several wall monuments to the chantry chapels including marble works by Captain Thomas Byam Martin and officers of HMS Implacable commemorating Lieutenant Joseph Hawkey, died 1809 aged 23; marble to Sophia Badley, died 1839, by Crocker of Plymouth; marble to John Marke of Woodhill Manor, died 1823 aged 63; and marble to Sedly Bastard Marke, son of John Marke, died 1855 aged 19, positioned on the north wall.

Except for Truro Cathedral, this is one of the three largest churches in Cornwall. The church is distinguished by its numerous chantry chapels, which were erected at the expense of the various town guilds.