Church Of St Martin

Church of St Martin

This church dates from the 13th and 14th centuries with some 15th-century work, and was restored in 1883 by Albert Hartshorne. It is constructed of coursed ironstone rubble and coursed squared ironstone with ironstone and limestone dressings, beneath lead roofs.

The building comprises a chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch and west tower. The 2-bay chancel contains a 5-light Perpendicular east window with straight head, 3-light windows to the north and south with reticulated tracery and ogee-arched heads, and 1-light low side windows to the north and south with cusped ogee-arched heads. A chamfered arched priest's door opens to the south. The chancel has a chamfered plinth, offset diagonal buttresses, offset buttresses between bays, and a chamfered string course at sill level stepped over the low-side windows and door as a hood mould.

The nave has a 4-bay clerestory of quatrefoil windows, except for 2-light straight-headed windows at the east end on either side which have ogee-arched lights, all in square chamfered stone surrounds. The north side of the nave contains 3-light straight-headed windows with pointed trefoil heads to the lights of the middle window, and reticulated tracery to those either side. A many-moulded north door with shafts to the outer arch, moulded capitals and hood mould gives access here. Carved stone above features heads and an ithyphallic figure. Offset buttresses separate the bays, and an offset diagonal buttress stands at the east angle. The roof is a tie-beam structure dated 1814.

The south aisle has a 3-light east window with intersecting tracery, a 2-light window with Y-tracery to the south-east, and 2-light straight-headed windows with trefoil-headed lights to the east of the porch and at the west end of the aisle. A lancet window opens to the west side of the porch. A south door similar to the north door is set in a gabled porch with double-chamfered doorway, blocked windows to the north and south, and an obelisk finial to the gable.

The 3-stage west tower has a chamfered west door, a cusped ogee-headed 1-light window above, and a polygonal stair turret to the south. The middle stage to the north contains a 1-light window with cusped head, and the bell chamber has 2-light Decorated openings. Diagonal offset buttresses support the tower, which is finished with a battlement. Plain stone-coped parapets finish the remainder of the church. All windows and doors have hood moulds, except for the clerestory and porch windows.

Internally, the chancel contains an ogee-arched piscina and trefoil-headed sedilia. A double-chamfered chancel arch with polygonal responds and moulded capitals separates the chancel from the nave. The nave has a 4-bay double-chamfered south arcade with octagonal piers, polygonal responds and moulded capitals; part of a round-arched head of the former clerestory window is now blocked. A triple-chamfered tower arch, with 2 outer arches dying into the wall, opens to the tower. The south or Foxley aisle has a piscina with pointed trefoil head.

A plain round font with a 17th-century octagonal pyramidal cover with ball finials stands in the nave. A 7-sided 17th-century pulpit is also present. One panelled box pew (hall pew) survives, with the remainder of 19th-century date incorporating cut-down box pew panelling. Three hatchments painted in oil on canvas are displayed. Medieval stained glass appears in the heads of two windows on the north side, and a shield in the head of a lancet window to the south-west bearing the symbol of the Trinity, probably also medieval. 19th-century stained glass includes a window to the south aisle dated 1889, and an east window to the tower.

The church contains several monuments. A brass plate on a plain slab in the nave commemorates Henry Boughton, died 1614. A wall monument with alabaster effigy on tomb chest records Sir John Needham, died 1618. The wall monument is dated 1633 and features a gadrooned surround to the inscription flanked by columns, an apron with cherub's head, vine trail frieze and cartouche of arms above flanked by finials incorporating smaller cartouches. An inscription on the tomb chest describes Sir John Needham as "Gentleman Pensioner unto the late Queene Elizabeth of happie Memorie and afterward unto our late Goveryaigne Lord King James". A horizontal oval white marble wall monument honours Thomas Grant, died 1803. A wall monument to Edward Grant, died 1812, and Jane Grant, signed by C. Prasperi of London, shows a mourning cherub leaning on a down-turned torch, seated on the inscription plaque. An almost life-sized angel on a plinth, erected by Edward Grant in 1907, records the names of all family members buried in the vault below; the female angel has an upturned left arm and holds a scroll inscribed "Until the Day Dawn".