Church Of St Martin

The Church of St Martin is a building of group value, dating back to the 11th century, with significant additions and alterations through the 12th, 15th, and 18th centuries. The chancel was entirely rebuilt in 1893 by Demaine and Brierley. The church is constructed of sandstone and limestone rubble, with some herringbone work in the nave, and ashlar dressings. The nave has a Westmorland slate roof, while the chancel has a corrugated iron roof.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave with a south porch, and a two-bay chancel. The west front of the three-stage tower features a two-light square-headed window flanked by diagonal buttresses. The south face has an illegible memorial slab with a Greek key border. A string course to the second stage carries a small lancet window. Double lancet belfry openings are present on each face. The tower has a later embattled parapet with pinnacles and a datestone indicating 1637.

The nave's fenestration is irregular. The south side incorporates two deeply-splayed round-headed 11th-century windows, a 18th or 19th-century porch, two 15th-century two-light square-headed windows, a three-light 15th-century square-headed window, and three 18th-century square-headed windows. One 18th-century window is flanked by two headstops and includes a mass dial in its left jamb. The porch contains a 12th-century round-headed doorway of two orders on moulded capitals, and a large memorial slab with a Greek key border commemorating Christopher Thompson, blacksmith at Castle Howard, who died in 1773. The north side of the nave features blocked 12th-century round-headed doorway of one plain order with hoodmould, beneath a 15th-century two-light square-headed window, and a deeply-splayed round-headed window to the left. To the extreme left is the blocked arcade arches of a demolished two-bay north chapel, which contains two 18th-century two-light windows. The chancel has a basket-arched priests' door flanked by two 19th-century two-light square-headed windows, and a three-light 19th-century east window.

Inside, a fragment of a Saxon wheel-cross is above the blocked north doorway. An effigy of Sir John de Bulmer, who died circa 1270-1280, is set into the north wall of the nave, accompanied by a shield on his left shoulder bearing a lion rampant, and a grave slab with a complex relief floriate cross and sword. An octagonal, flush-panel 18th-century pulpit is also present.