Church Of St Martin

The Church of St Martin is an Anglican parish church of cruciform plan with a tower over the crossing, located in North Perrott. It dates to the 12th century but was substantially modified in the 16th century, with some early 20th-century restoration work carried out.

The building is constructed of roughly cut and squared ham stone with ashlar dressings. The roofs are of stone slate to the chancel and west porch, with sheet lead behind parapets elsewhere.

The church comprises a chancel of two bays, a nave of two bays, transepts, a tower over the crossing, and a west porch. There is also a north-east organ chamber with vestry attached.

The chancel has a plinth and angled corner buttresses, with a stepped coped gable topped by a finial. The east window is a four-light window of 16th-century date, with a four-centred arched head set within a hollowed arched recess under a square-stop label. To the south are two two-light windows, both in 15th-century style tracery. The western window has plain uncusped tracery with a simple label; the eastern window is fully cusped with a square-stop label. Both feature 19th-century external ironwork. A simple narrow cambered-arched doorway lies between these windows. The north side has a single simple window.

The organ chamber and vestry may originally have been a 15th-century chapel. This section features a string course with a corner gargoyle and a plain parapet. It has a two-light cusped traceried east window under a square-stop label, and a small flat-headed two-light window on the north side. A later 19th-century flat-roofed lobby has been added to the north, with a plain parapet, cambered-arched east door, a two-light north window, and a single-light west window. At the north-west corner of the organ chamber and vestry stands a projecting wall tomb with a stepped hipped stone roof and segmental-arched recess over a chest.

The transepts are fitted with plinths and angled corner buttresses, string courses and shallow plain parapets. Each transept contains a rather wide four-light sub-arcuated window with uncusped tracery, set in a pointed segmental-arched hollowed recess under a square-stop label. These windows are possibly of 17th-century date. The nave matches the transepts and has one matching four-light window in both its north and south walls. Between the nave and south transept stands an octagonal stair turret that rises taller than the parapets, with a simple doorway and slit windows.

The west window, set above the porch, is a five-light window with a triangular-arched recess decorated with wave moulding and uncusped tracery. A small cambered-arched recess lies to the south of the porch. The west porch, probably dating to the 16th century, has angled corner buttresses and a shallow pitched roof with a coped gable and cross finial. It features a triangular-moulded outer archway with wrought-iron gates and a chamfered four-centred inner arch, with bench seats to the side and an elliptical stone vault.

The tower rises two stages above the roofline and is decorated with string courses and corner gargoyles to the upper stage. It has a shallow plain parapet. A clockface is set on the south side across the middle string course. Each face of the second stage has two two-light windows of 15th-century character, set in flat-arched chamfered recesses without labels and having decorative pierced stone baffles.

The interior displays a strong 15th-century character. The chancel has a 19th-century timber rib and plaster panel vault ceiling. The reredos is panelled with 17th-century Spanish side pieces and a centre panel by the younger Westmacott. A trefoil-arched piscina is set in the south wall. A 19th-century panelled arch leads into the organ chamber. The crossing features four panelled arches with central shafts of rural character, with side squints from the transepts to the chancel. The north transept has a 19th-century king-post ceiling in 15th-century style and a 19th-century panelled arch to the organ chamber. The south transept has a simple ridge beam with panels of 20th-century date. The nave ceiling spans five bays with 20th-century moulded tie beams set on carved head corbels, some of which may be medieval, and has plain plastered panels. All fittings are of late 19th or early 20th-century date, executed in a simple style. The lectern and pulpit are of good quality and replicate medieval designs. A simple hexagonal font of uncertain date is present.

Several early 19th-century monuments commemorate the Hoskins family (later spelled Hoskyns) of North Perrott Manor. The first recorded rector dates to 1297.