Church Of St Martin

The Church of St Martin is a parish church originating in the early 12th century. It is located on Main Street, Seamer. The original structure comprised a nave, chancel, and tower, with the chancel extended in the 15th century. A north aisle, chantry, vestry, and south porch were added in the 15th century, and the upper stages of the tower were rebuilt around 1840. The church underwent re-roofing and restoration work between 1885 and 1889, overseen by C Hodgson Fowler. The building is constructed from dressed sandstone with a stone flag roof.

The west tower features three stages and includes battlements above a corbel table, retaining 12th-century angle buttresses. Round-arched bell openings with two lights are on the upper stage. The south porch has a gabled design with a four-centred arched doorway, incorporating a 19th-century sundial above. A round-arched doorway of two orders with scalloped capitals and roll moulding leads into the church, where a 12th- or 13th-century iron-studded oak door is set, secured with strap and C-hinges and later reinforcement. Two original clerestory windows with roll-moulded heads remain on the south side, with replacement windows alongside—one 14th century with Decorated tracery and the other 19th century with intersecting tracery. Pilaster buttresses are placed between these windows. A four-centred doorway and two-light windows with plain heads are present on the north side. The chancel features a 15th-century two-light window with a flat hood mould, an inserted 19th-century window with intersecting tracery, and a 19th-century east window. Fragments of an original sill band of nutmeg moulding, visible on either side of the buttress between the nave and chancel, remain. The nave and chancel are embattled over a corbel table, topped with crocketed pinnacles.

Inside, a 12th-century round chancel arch of three orders features scalloped capitals and beakhead and roll moulding. A rood stair survives in the left pier. Deeply splayed clerestory windows with roll-moulded heads are also present. A blocked and shortened window, similarly styled, is found in the north chancel wall, above an inserted opening to the later chantry. The nave clerestory and string course below were altered by the 15th-century insertion of a four-bay arcade comprising double-chamfered round arches on shafted piers. The 15th-century vestry has a pointed tunnel-vaulted roof, a two-light east window, and a corner fireplace. The nutmeg moulding is also visible in the south-western corner of the chantry. Reset 12th-century corbels carved as caryatid heads flank the altar. A sanctus bell dated 1448, presented by Lady Percy in 1550, is preserved in the vestry, alongside fragments of 15th-century glass depicting two heads in a north window. A chancel screen dating from circa 1685, bearing the coat of arms of Sir John Napier, is also present. Verses from Psalm 46, painted on the west wall, relate to the period when the church gallery served as the Village School. Monuments include a 16th-century brass to Lucy, wife of Sir Henry Gate, within the chantry; a wall monument in the chancel to Elizabeth Woodall (d. 1801), by Chambers of Scarborough; and a wall sculpture in high relief in the north aisle depicting Sarah Boutflower (d. 1810), created by J. Theakston in 1815.