Parish Church Of St Martin

The Parish Church of St Martin was built between 1938 and the designs of NF Cachemaille Day. It is constructed with brick footings, plastered, and has slate roofs. The church is in a Neo-Romanesque style.

The plan includes a nave with a west-end baptistry, a chancel with three-bay aisles and a two-bay south organ chamber, a north-east tower, and an east-end Lady Chapel. The north side of the church presents a facade with no clear division between the chancel and nave. A projecting, rectangular tower adjoins the chancel, with a lower-roofed Lady Chapel to the east.

The nave has a parapet with eight high-set, round-headed aisle windows recessed behind a colonnade of columns supporting brick arches. A round-headed doorway is located to the east of the nave, featuring a recessed brick arch and a two-leaf timber door with vertical roll mouldings, which are repeated as glazing bars in the fanlight. A second two-leaf door is at the west end of the nave, within the lower-roofed west-end baptistry block. The three-stage tower includes three sets of triple round-headed windows on the north side; the upper set features louvred belfry windows. The east return of the tower is decorated with a large relief sculpture of the Crucifixion. The north side of the Lady Chapel features a ribbon of five round-headed windows separated by columns. The east end of the Lady Chapel projects forward with one round-headed window, and blocked round-headed doorways are set back to the left and right.

Inside, the church has flat ceilings and no division between the nave and chancel. The aisle and organ chamber bays feature brick columns, star-shaped on plan. A plain, three-bay arcade leads into the baptistry, which is top-lit. The sanctuary is distinguished by a massive baldacchino with four round-headed arches, a gabled roof, and four columns with Byzantine capitals. The baldacchino is gilded with reliefs of censing angels. A low, solid, semicircular chancel screen is in place. A wall between the sanctuary and the Lady Chapel is pierced by three round-headed glazed arches. A round pulpit projects from the north wall, accessible by concealed stairs. A Torquay marble font is present. The Lady Chapel has a massive gilded corona lucis and abstract stained glass in the east window. The baptistry contains stained glass from 1959.