Chichester – St Martin

This stood in St Martin’s Street and there are references to it from the C13 onwards.  In 1750 it consisted of a nave, north aisle and chancel (VCH 3 p165), though no dates of building are known.  It fell into disrepair and was largely rebuilt in 1802 by an unrecorded architect in a rather crude gothic.  The rebuilding cannot have been total, for traces of mediaeval wall-paintings were found in 1906.  The Sharpe Collection drawing (1804) shows it shortly after rebuilding with battlements, even on the sloping west gable, and quite a  substantial belfry, also battlemented.  It also had what seem to have been two-light bell-openings and a taller octagonal spire.

The church deteriorated after this work and in 1899 the parish was united with St Olave, which contains some fairly modest monuments from St Martin; there is also one in St Andrew, Oxmarket.  The church was pulled down in 1906 and its site is marked by a garden containing a plaque.  The surrounding walls, though featureless, are said to be some of those of the former church (www.BritishListedBuildings.co.uk).