St Martin's Church, Canterbury Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Church of St Martin
St Martin's Church
Location	Canterbury, Kent, England
Built	before AD 597
Governing body	PCC St Martin & St Paul, Canterbury

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name: Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, vi
Designated	1988 (12th session)
Reference no.	496
State	United Kingdom
Region	Europe and North America


Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: Church of St Martin
Designated	28 February 1952
Reference no.	1242166

Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).

The Church of St Martin is a very old church in Canterbury, England. It's a bit outside the city center. Many people believe it's the oldest church building in Britain that is still used for church services today. It might even be the oldest parish church in the world where English is spoken! (Though there were Roman and Celtic churches before it).

This church, along with Canterbury Cathedral and St Augustine's Abbey, is so important that it's part of a World Heritage Site. This means it's recognized globally for its special history. Since 1668, St Martin's has been connected with St Paul's Church nearby. Both churches still hold weekly services.

A Look Back: Early History
What the Church Looks Like: Architecture
Resting Places: Graves
Music at the Church
Images for kids
See also

A Look Back: Early History

St Martin's was Queen Bertha of Kent's private chapel. She was a Christian princess from a place called Francia. She came to England with her chaplain, Bishop Liudhard. This was before Saint Augustine of Canterbury arrived from Rome in 597 AD.

Queen Bertha's husband, Æthelberht of Kent, was not Christian. But he let her practice her faith. He helped her fix up an old Roman-British building around 580 AD to use as a church. A famous writer named Bede said this building was used as a church in Roman times but was later abandoned. Bede also said it was named after Martin of Tours, a city near where Queen Bertha grew up. However, some modern experts wonder if it was truly a church in Roman times.

When Augustine arrived in 597 AD, he used St Martin's as his main base for his mission. He even made it bigger. Later, when Canterbury Cathedral and St Augustine's Abbey were built, St Martin's became less famous. But it still holds its place as a very important historical site.

Around 1844, a collection of gold coins was found in the churchyard. These coins might be from the late 500s. One of them is a special medal called the Liudhard medalet. It shows a figure wearing a crown and has a name that refers to Bishop Liudhard.

What the Church Looks Like: Architecture

Roman bricks in the chancel wall

Discoveries in the area show that Christianity was present here a long time ago. The church itself has many old Roman bricks and pieces of walls that were reused. At the very center of the church, the remains of a Roman tomb were built right into the structure.

Many parts of the walls are clearly very old. It's possible that a blocked-up doorway in the chancel (the part of the church near the altar) was the entrance to Queen Bertha's church. Other parts of the walls were built after the Gregorian mission in the 600s or 700s, including most of the nave (the main part of the church where people sit). The rounded end of the church, called an apse, that was once at the east end has been removed. The church tower was added much later, in a style called Perpendicular. The Church of St Martin is a Grade I listed building, which means it's a very important historical building.

Resting Places: Graves

The churchyard is a burial ground for many important local families and well-known people. These include:

Henry Alford, a church leader and scholar.
Canon William Cadman, a preacher from the 1800s.
Thomas Sidney Cooper, a famous artist.
Mary Tourtel, who created the beloved character Rupert Bear.

Music at the Church

The Church of St Martin has a long history of music, going all the way back to the monks of St Augustine's Abbey.

The church tower has three bells. They are set up for "swing-chiming," which means they swing back and forth when rung using levers. The largest bell weighs about 6,272 pounds (6 long tons, 2 hundredweight, 0 quarters).