Church of St Martin

Details

TL 4680 WITCHAM HIGH STREET (North side)

13/54 Church of St Martin 5.2.52 GV I

Parish church. C13 west tower, part of nave arcade and chancel. C14 nave. Restorations of 1691 (dated brick in tower), includes much of the red brickwork and of C19. Field and rubblestone walls and limestone and clunch dressings with red brick restoration and plain tiled and slate roof with end parapets and gable crosses. Plan of west tower, nave with late north and south aisles and chancel. West tower C13 with much of the wall rebuilt in 1691 and a north west buttress in C20. Three stages with brick embattled parapet and three stage diagonal buttressing with reused limestone dressings. C13 west lancet window with hollow moulding and deeply splayed rear arch. Similar window to second and bell stage. Nave, C13 origin but rebuilt in C14 when the aisles were added. The original gable of the C13 nave roof is visible in the west wall. Clerestory has on each side three windows of two trefoil lights each. The south aisle has at the west end a C13 lancet window partly rebuilt. Two reset coupled lancets in the south wall (similar to those at Coveney q.v.in the north wall of the chancel). The walls are of fieldstone with red brick to upper courses. The south porch is C13 in origin but the walls are probably C15 with C17 roof. Dressed limestone to the buttressing, but fieldstone walls and plain tiled gable roof with brick sawtooth eaves cornice. The gable end wall is of red brick with a reset C13 outer arch of dressed limestone. Two centred arch of two chamfered orders on half octagonal columns to the responds with label and mask stops. The inner arch is two centred and of a single chamfered order. Chancel. Fieldstone walls and limestone dressings. Single lancet in south wall and two C15 windows, restored, in square heads. The east window is C19, but the evidence for the C13 lancets, probably graduated, is visible internally and externally. The north wall of the chancel has two C13 lancets and a C13 doorway, blocked, having a two centred single chamfered arch. North aisle of nave has three windows, C13 and C14. One has two lights in two centred arch with Y-tracery, and two have five trefoil lights in two centred arch with reticulated tracery to the spandrel. The north doorway, like the south doorway, has a two centred single chamfered arch. Interior: C13 west tower arch, two centred and of two chamfered orders with a label. Nave arcade of five bays on south side and four on the north. Two centred arches of two chamfered orders, similar to that of the C13 tower arch. The piers are however C14. Nave roof, C19, of tie beam and collar rafter type with short bracing. The jackposts to the tiebeams are carried on original carved corbels. C19 chancel roof. Chancel arch C14, is two centred and of two chamfered orders on half octagonal responds with moulded capitals and splayed bases. Double piscina in south wall with each bay having cinquefoil cusping to d two centred arch. The communion rail, early C18, with twisted balusters of column-on-vase type. Wall monuments: North side of chancel. Rev Joseph Layton, d1771. Limestone with black marble tablets. South wall of Chancel. Rev Richard Taylor d.1720. Limestone and black marble. Chancel screen: C16. Five bays including centre entry bay. Oak. Closed lower stage has some modern subcusping to the heads, but original centre panels with waterleaf and mask motif. Pulpit, C15 is of clunch and rare. Three sides with blank cusped arches, steps to entry on fourth side. Some C16 pews remain at the west end of the nave. Original benches to some, with moulded rail and poppy, head finials to ends. Font. C12. Limestone. Tapering square with chamfered corners on central shaft with four subsidiary columns with moulded capitals and base. The chamfers each have a grotesque mask and the sides are carved in low relief with an angel, two dragons and an eagle.

Pevsner: Buildings of England p504 VCH: Cambs Vol IV

Listing NGR: TL4649480045

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

49584

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, (1953)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, (1954), 504

End of official list entry

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