St Martin's Church was among the oldest churches in the city of

Lincoln, England Lincoln () is a cathedral city, a non-metropolitan district, and the county town of Lincolnshire, England. In the 2021 Census, the Lincoln district had a population of 103,813. The 2011 census gave the Lincoln Urban Area, urban area of Lincoln, ...

. It has been suggested that during the

Anglo-Saxon Period Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of ...

and during the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian ...

, St Martin was considered to be the patron saint of Lincoln. The church is likely to have been associated with the rare St Martin silver pennies minted in Lincoln, probably before 918 A.D, when Lincoln was taken back from the Danes by the Anglo-Saxons.

History

The church stood at the top of Lincoln High Street in the downhill area of Lincoln, before the land rises steeply to 'uphill' Lincoln, which is dominated by

Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. Constructio ...

. In the Medieval period the area around St Martin's church was the commercial centre of Lincoln and it stood very close to the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

Jew's House The Jew's House is one of the earliest extant town houses in England, estimated to have been built around 1170. It is situated on Steep Hill in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Lincoln, immediately below Jew's Court. The house has traditionally been associa ...

and Jews Court. The church was largely destroyed in the English Civil War in 1643 and left as a ruin until 1739-40 when it was rebuilt in a

Georgian style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarchs of the House of Hano ...

. This is the church that was recorded by the artist

Samuel Hieronymus Grimm Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (18 January 1733 – 14 April 1794)''The Gentleman's Magazine, 1794, p399 was an 18th-century Swiss landscape artist who worked in oils (until 1764), watercolours, and pen and ink media. Grimm specialised in documenting h ...

around 1784. About 1812 a new aisle was added to the church by the Lincoln architect William Hayward. Then in 1873, it was suggested that the whole of the church should be demolished to make way for a larger church. Due to the intervention of the Mayor of Lincoln, the tower, which was a prominent landmark on the Lincoln skyline was saved until it was demolished in about 1930. Much of the decorative stonework from the demolished church was used in the new church of St Andrew in Canwick road which was built in 1876–7, but this church was demolished in 1970. St Martin's Church was rebuilt in 1873 in West Parade at the corner with Orchard Street by the architect A S Beckett. An application was made to demolish the replacement church in 1966 and after a legal hearing the building was demolished in 1970. Today, only the graveyard, which lies between St Martin's Lane and Garmston Street remains. The graveyard has been paved with some of the grave-slabs from the old church.

Surviving objects from the church

Church Silver

Surviving objects from the church included the communion plate which consisted of three communion cups silver with

paten A paten or diskos is a small plate, used during the Mass. It is generally used during the liturgy itself, while the reserved sacrament are stored in the tabernacle in a ciborium. Western usage In many Western liturgical denominations, the p ...

covers and two silver flagons. One of these cups with a paten cover made by an unknown maker with initial 'A' and hallmarked in London in 1569, is now on display in the

Treasury.

Monument to Sir Thomas Grantham

The Grantham family were an important and long established family in the parish, who occupied the

prebendal A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of t ...

house of St Martin's on the High Street. The family monuments were in the north aisle of the chancel of the church. Of these monuments, one was a particularly fine

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

monument to Sir Thomas Grantham ( died 1630) and his first wife Frances (Puckering)(died 1610). Sir Thomas was an M.P for Lincoln and Lincolnshire. This monument is now in the church of

St Mary le Wigford St Mary le Wigford is a Grade I listed parish church in Lincoln, England. History The church dates from the 11th century, with 12th and 13th century additions. The dedication stone in the west tower is a re-used Roman tombstone with a later A ...

, Lincoln. The tomb, which now lacks its canopy, is made from

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...

sourced from Nottingham, and is likely to be the work of the noted sculptor

Maximilian Colt Maximilian Colt (alias Maximilian Coult) (died after 1641) was a Flemish sculptor who settled in England and eventually rose to become the King's Master Carver. Life Colt was a Calvinist, born in Arras apparently as Maximilian Poultrain, who sett ...

The tomb has had a very chequered history. When

Edward James Willson Edward James Willson (1787–1854) was an English people, English architect, antiquary, architectural writer, and Mayor of Lincoln, England, mayor of Lincoln in 1851–2. Life Born in Lincoln, England, Lincoln on 21 June 1787, he was the eldes ...

visited the church in 1807 he found the canopy had fallen and broken the faces of the recumbent figures. It was later moved into the church tower. In 1889 a Mr Justice Grantham, who claimed to be a descendant, removed the tomb without permission to

Barcombe Barcombe is an East Sussex village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex. The parish has four settlements: old Barcombe (), the oldest settlement in the parish with the parish church; Barcombe Cross (), the more populous settle ...

in Sussex. The remaining fragments of the effigies were reclaimed and placed in St Benedict's Church Lincoln, where in 1956 Sir Francis Hill says that the mutilated fragments lay ''after unseemly neglect and ill-usage''. Grave slab, St Martin's Lincoln

Sometime before 1985 the tomb chest and fragments were reassembled in St Mary le Wigford and this was recorded by the Church Monuments Society. However, subsequently more of the figures have re-appeared including the lion on which Sir Thomas rests his feet, and the figures have been re-arranged.

Grave slab in St Martin’s Churchyard to the Rev Francis Harvey and John Harvey.

Among the grave slabs now used as paving in St Martin's Churchyard is a fine memorial slab to the Rev Francis Harvey who died aged 29 years in 1711, and John Harvey who died in 1758. The grave slab is carved in cameo lettering on a black marble slab with the family coat of arms above. There are two very similarly carved black marble slabs, the source of which is yet to be identified, in the east end of the chancel of Lincoln Cathedral. These distinctive grave slabs were presumably produced in a local workshop. Details of Francis Harvey are given in ''

Alumni Cantabrigienses ''Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900'' is a biographical register of former members of the University of Cambridge whic ...

''. He was the son of Francis Harvey of Lincoln and went to school at Newark. He became a fellow of

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

in 1708.

The St Martin of Lincoln silver Penny

These very rare silver coins were minted in Lincoln shortly before the end of Danish rule. The

obverse Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''o ...

of the coin has a sword and is crudely lettered Sancti Marti and on the reverse is a cross and is lettered Civit Lincolia, for Lincoln. It has been argued that at this time St Martin was the patron saint of Lincoln and that these coins were minted in the vicinity of St Martin's church, the main commercial centre of Lincoln then.Stewart I. (1967) ''The St Martin Coins of Lincoln'' British Numismatic Journal, Vol.36, pp46–54.

/ref> Currently about 14 examples of these coins are known and one from the Francis Hill, Sir Francis Hill collection is in the

Usher Gallery The Usher Gallery is an art museum in Lincoln, England. The gallery displays a collection of artworks by painters such as J. M. W. Turner and L. S. Lowry. Established in 1927, it is run as part of the Collection. History James Ward Usher wa ...

. A particularly fine specimen of a St Martin penny was found in the

Vale of York Hoard The Vale of York Hoard, also known as the Harrogate Hoard and the Vale of York Viking Hoard, is a 10th-century Viking hoard of 617 silver coins and 65 other items. It was found undisturbed in 2007 near the town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, ...

in 2006.

References

Literature

* Antram N (revised), Pevsner N & Harris J, (1989), ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'', Yale University Press. * Pevsner N & Harris J, (1964), ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'', Penguin. p. 144. * Stewart I. (1967) ''The St Martin Coins of Lincoln'' British Numismatic Journal, Vol.36, pp. 46–54.

* Venables E. (1875-6) ''The Destroyed churches of St Paul and St Martin in the City of Lincoln.'' Associated Architectural Society Reports and Papers, Vol.13, pp. 208–216. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Martin's Church, Lincoln Church of England church buildings in Lincolnshire, Lincoln Churches in Lincoln, England