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| 14th century wall paintings found and recorded in the19th century by Allen Edward Everitt. Held at Birmingham Museums. |
St. Martin is situated in the Bull Ring in Birmingham, the ancient market area.
The church was first mentioned in 1263. In a rebuild of the church in the 1800s wall paintings were uncovered from the 1300s. These were painted by Allen Edward Everitt in the early 1870s (images above and below).
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| 14th century wall paintings found and recorded in the 19th century by Allen Edward Everitt. Held at Birmingham Museums. |
1600s: The first image below is the only known image of the pre-Georgian church, and shows it in about 1656. In around 1690 the church was encased in red sandstone in a neo-classical style, although the spire and much of the interior was left.
1700s: A brick clerestory (Wikipedia) was added in 1733, and a vestry to the south-east in 1760.* The latter was designed by William Hiorn who also repaired the spire in 1753.** Hiorn was a Warwick-based architect who was involved in other Birmingham buildings.
Some of the spire was rebuilt in 1781 by John Chesshire.*3* In 1786 the interior was altered.
1800s: By the 1800s the church was in great need of repair. In 1820 Thomas Rickman prepared drawings for the restoration, but this never took place. The drawings survive though. P. C. Hardwick restored the tower and spire between 1853 and 1855.* Between 1872 and 1875 the church was rebuilt by J. A. Chatwin and everything but the spire and tower were replaced, including the interior.
St. Martin Gallery
c. 1656
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| Section including St. Martin's, taken from a south-east prospect of the town produced by Wenceslaus Hollar, c. 1656. |
1750
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| Etching of South View of St. Martin from 1750 Map of Birmingham, by Samuel Bradford. |
1783
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| St. Martin's Church. |
The illustration above is taken from the 1783 edition of William Hutton's A History of Birmingham. Read his full account of the church, written in 1783, here. Below is an excerpt:
The antiquity of St. Martin's will appear by surveying the adjacent ground. From the eminence upon which the High-street stands, proceeds a steep, and regular descent into Moor-street, Digbeth, down Spiceal-street, Lee's-lane, and Worcester-street. This descent is broken only by the church-yard; which, through a long course of internment, for ages, is augmented into a considerable hill, chiefly composed of the refuse of life. We may, therefore, safely remark, in this place, the dead are raised up. Nor shall we be surprised at the rapid growth of the hill, when we consider this little point of land was alone that hungry grave which devoured the whole inhabitants, during the long ages of existence, till the year 1715, when St. Philip's was opened. The curious observer will easily discover, the fabric has lost that symmetry which should ever attend architecture, by the growth of the soil about it, causing a low appearance in the building, so that instead of the church burying the dead, the dead would, in time, have buried the church.It is reasonable to allow, the original approach into this place was by a flight of steps, not by descent, as is the present case; and that the church-yard was surrounded by a low wall. As the ground swelled by the accumulation of the dead, wall after wall was added to support the growing soil; thus the fence and the hill sprang up together; but this was demonstrated, August 27, 1781, when, in removing two or three old houses, to widen St. Martin's Lane, they took down the church-yard wall, which was fifteen feet high without, and three within. This proved to be only an outward case, that covered another wall twelve feet high; in the front of which was a stone, elevated eight feet, and inscribed, "Robert Dallaway, Francis Burton." Church-wardens, anno dom. (supposed) "1310." As there is certain evidence, that the church is, much older than the above date, we should suspect there had been another fence many ages prior to this. But it was put beyond a doubt, when the workmen came to a third wall, four feet high, covered with antique coping, probably erected with the fabric itself, which would lead us far back into the Saxon times.
Around the late 1700s.
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| St. Martin from the Aylesford Collection, late 1700s or early 1800s. Held at Birmingham Archive. Included in an Iron Room post written by Rachel MacGregor. |
The above image was produced after the top part of the spire was rebuilt in 1781.
1811
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| Painting of St. Martin and the Bull Ring on a japanned tea tray. Taken from a drawing and print by Thomas Hollins, 1811. See post about this drawing and consequent prints, here. |
1827
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| Section of a print of The High Street Market [Bull Ring market], drawn by David Cox and engraved by William Radclyffe, 1827. |
1841
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| Section showing St. Martin's of the 1841 vista of Birmingham. Held at Birmingham Archive. |
1847-1851
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| The Bull Ring (with St. Martin) from The Land We Live In (London: 1847-51). Held at the British Museum. |
c. 1850-1872
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| St. Martin's Church, by Night, by Elijah Walton, c. 1850-1872. Held by Birmingham Museums. |
Post 1873 Rebuild
This church was demolished in 1873 and rebuilt by the architect J. A. Chatwin, preserving some of the earlier tower and spire.
c. 1880
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ST. MARTIN FAMILY RESEARCH
Records found at Birmingham Archives
Baptisms: Microfilm 1555-1929
Marriages: Microfilm 1554-1981
Burials: Microfilm 1554-1915
Available to buy from BMSGH
Baptisms: 1554-1929 Marriages: 1554-1903 Burials: 1554-1915. On DVD or CD format: visit site.
To find out more about architectural changes to the church, a useful article has been written by Bill Dargue, here.
* Andy Foster, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Birmingham (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005), p. 53.
* Andy Foster, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Birmingham (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005), p. 53.
** Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 3rd edn., (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), p. 495-496.
*3* A concise history of Birmingham, (Birmingham: R. Jabet and P. Lucas, 1808), 4th edn., p. 18.