Monument record EXG 031 - Church of St Martin

This church is within the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, archdeaconry of Sudbury, deanery of Mildenhall. Status : vicarage (S1).
Structure is : chancel, N transept, S transept, nave, N Aisle, S aisle, S porch (with upper chamber), W tower of 3 stages. The style of architecture is chiefly Decorated. The chancel is Early English and the core of it is late C12. It contains in the S wall a Decorated double piscina of circa 1300. The large E window is a late Perpendicular insertion. In the S wall of the chancel are 2 Early English lancet windows which were discovered during the restoration of 1909. Much of the stonework in the present windows appears to be careful replacement of the originals. Contained within the chancel are two Perpendicular table tombs: the large one on the N side of Purbeck marble has lost its brasses. A priest's doorway was added in C15. The font is C14, a stone octagon, the faces have blank shields and roses in quatrefoils alternately. The N transept is circa 1300-1340 and contains elegant windows with reticulated tracery. It is furnished as a Lady Chapel with a C17 communion table as an altar and a Med niche above it. Contained within the N transept is a C13 coffin lid. The S transept is circa 1300 - 1340 and Decorated with reticulated tracery in the windows of the S wall. In 1972 an aumbry and piscina, ornamented with dogtooth carving, circa 1300 were discovered in the S transept (which is now called St Wendreda's Chapel). Also discovered in 1972, and adjacent to the aumbry and piscina, is a double heartshrine. It consists of two recesses with carved stone hands, the larger male, the smaller female. This heartshrine was constructed in c. 1400 and is unique in the county. The N aisle contains a large but not deep canopied niche of C15 near the N doorway, it is much defaced. The arcades are of C14 and consist of 4 bays with double-chamfered arches supported by octagon pillars. The roof loft staircase remains and is housed in an internal turret at the NE corner of the nave. The tower arch is triple- chamfered with continuous mouldings. The tower is late C13 or early C14, Decorated. It has 3 stages and is 75 feet high. The original tower of c. 1300 lacked the present belfry and parapet stages, these were added during the first half of C14. The wooden cupola which houses the clock bell is C18. The sanctus bell window still remains. The S porch was restored in C19; it has a parvise (or priest's room) above it. The S doorway is large and C14. 21 benches with linenfold panelling dating from C16 still exist in the church. Some of the plain bench-ends in the N aisle may be C17. The W window has reticulated tracery and the S window is a reticulated 4-light. The aisle windows were renewed in 1863 - 1864. An Early English floor cross of Purbeck marble survives. Also surviving is one simply traceried C15 choir stall front with the usual plinth pierced with quatrefoils and poppyheads (S2).
Some restoration work was done in 1868. A recent restoration (circa 1965) has cleared the church to reveal its medieval proportions (S2).