St Martin of Tours Church and boundary walls, Bilborough, City of Nottingham

Summary

A C14 church with mid-C15 tower. First restored in 1833, and then in 1887-89 by JE Newberry. Extensive additions to the north (not listed) by Colin Shewring in 1972, and a further programme of restoration works was carried out in 2010-14.

Description

MATERIALS: the church walls are a mix of red limestone rubble and ashlar blocks brought to course, with dressings in ashlar, the tower is largely in sandstone ashlar blocks. The roofs have slate tile coverings.

PLAN: the church is orientated north-east / south-west with a porch to the south-east and a tower at the south-west end. The plan is roughly rectangular though the chancel is narrower than the nave, with their south-eastern walls in line, and the north-western wall of the chancel indented in from that of the nave.

EXTERIOR: roofs are pitched. The nave is higher and wider than the chancel, with the ridge of the chancel south-east of the nave’s ridge. Both nave and chancel have coped parapet gables to their north-east ends with stone Greek cross finials at the apex of each gable. Two horizontal courses of dressed, chamfered stones run around nave and chancel below the window cills, these are continuous except where broken by sealed doorways in the east end of the south-east elevation of the chancel and the west end of the nave in the north-west elevation. The nave has three windows to each side, the chancel two windows to its south-eastern elevation, but the 1972 extension has removed those in the north-west.

Windows generally have square heads with two lights divided by a single central mullion, some with a transom just below centre. The two chancel windows have a more flowing style of tracery than those in the nave, with a pair of horizontally aligned mouchettes either side of the mullions below the heads in contrast with the nave’s which are vertical. The westernmost windows in the nave are shorter than the others as their cills are higher. The heads of the south-eastern windows in the chancel drop down slightly from those in the nave, mirroring the lower ridge height of the chancel.

The tower is at the south-west end of the church, it is square in plan and has a two-light, flat headed window at the bell stage level of each elevation, then above that a string course then a crenelated top. The south-west elevation has a large pointed arched two-light window with a transom and tracery. There are simple narrow loop openings below the upper windows on all except the north-east tower elevation which has none. The south-east elevation has a second smaller loop to the east, and the south-west elevation a second loop south of the large lower pointed arch window. The tower has buttresses set diagonally at its north and south corners, and at right-angles where it joins the nave.

The south porch is at the west end of the nave. It has a pitched roof with its gable to the south-east where there is a C21 glass door, the apex of the gable has a Greek cross finial. Over the door is an ogee arch surround decorated with crockets and sprung from corbels with king and queen carved heads. There is an ogee headed two-light window in each side wall.

The south-east elevation has buttresses between the central and eastern window in the nave, at the join between nave and chancel, and centrally in the chancel. There is a blocked doorway east of the chancel buttress.

The north-west elevation of the nave has a buttress between the central and eastern windows in the nave. There is a blocked arch to its east end, before the join to the 1972 work, then a blocked doorway between the central and western nave windows.

The north-east elevation is the end of the chancel and is dominated by the pointed-arch C19 three-light window which has a high transom through its upper tracery. The north and east corner buttresses are set diagonally.

INTERIOR: walls are rendered. The nave has a C19 arch braced roof, the chancel has a C19 barrel vaulted ceiling with carved floral bosses. The floors were replaced in 2014 with stone flags.

The south-east wall of the chancel has a C19 cusped ogee piscina at its eastern end and a blocked doorway between its two windows. Window glazing is plain in leaded lights. The arch dividing the nave from chancel is equilateral and springs from plain ashlar columns; it is decorated with simple mouldings with the nave side having a hood mould. The arched opening between nave and tower has an inner arch sprung from imposts which has a chamfer to each side. The tower is accessed by a small door in the western corner of the nave. It houses a bell made in 1887 by John Taylor & Company of Loughborough.

The panelled oak pulpit and pews are C19. Pews are open benches, plain except for a circular floral motif on the armrests at the pew ends. The oak benches in the porch are C21. The font is C17, stone, plain and octagonal on a re-used older base.

A monument to Edmund Helwys (died 1590), father of Thomas Helwys, an early Baptist is on the south-eastern wall of the chancel at its east end. This is an inscribed alabaster tablet framed by columns holding a pediment under a crest flanked by scrolled brackets.

The Gibbs Annunciation mural is in two parts, with one life-sized figure either side of the east window in the chancel; Gabriel to the south, and Mary the north. The scene is depicted not in Nazareth, but a stylised Bilborough. The south side of St Martin’s Church is shown behind Gabriel, with the distinctive outline of Grade I listed Wollaton Hall (National Heritage List for England 1255269) in the background, though in fact Wollaton Hall is some distance south of the church, not north. Behind Mary is a courtyard of farm buildings, dominant is the tall tithe barn with its unusual tower which was (before its demolition in the 1950s) north of Church Farm, around 200 metres north-east of the church.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the churchyard boundary to the north is a stone rubble wall with roughly shaped coping stones. It is interrupted by the 1972 extension, and continues curving round the west side of the extension to the boundary with the new rectory, this section is broken by a five bar gate to the north-west, and again further north-west by a smaller pedestrian gate over the path to the churchyard. The wall then continues south along the boundary with the new rectory past the church to the graveyard in the south where the wall is supplemented by a hedge until the wall tapers down to its end around 20m south of the church. To the east of the 1972 extension the stone wall runs east to the path into the churchyard, where it is broken by a small gate then terminates.

History

Bilborough lies within the western boundary of the city of Nottingham, around three and a half miles north-west of the city centre. Formerly a small village, in the mid-C20 Bilborough was greatly expanded by new housing estates. The first record of a church at Bilborough, thought to have been dedicated to St Cuthbert, is detailed in the Nottingham Archdeaconry in the ecclesiastical taxation assessment carried out under Pope Nicholas IV in 1291-2. The present church is dedicated to St Martin of Tours and was constructed in the late-C14. The tower is later, from the mid-C15, and replaces an earlier tower contemporary with the nave. The south porch also dates to the mid-C15.

The church came into the ownership of the Strelley Estate in 1680, and in 1927 it was transferred to the Anglo-Catholic Society for the Maintenance of the Faith; this society is still a joint patron of the church.

Restorations were undertaken in 1833, and again between 1887-9 by JE Newberry (1862-1950). During these restorations a gallery for a choir at the west end of the nave was removed, work was carried out to the windows and buttresses, and the chancel arch, roofs and ceilings were replaced.

In 1945, St Martin’s Church requested a mural for the chancel from the Midland Regional Designers’ Group. This group was established in Nottingham by Evelyn Gibbs (1905-91) in 1943, and had quickly established a high local profile for their public art works. Gibbs is notable as an artist and for her influence in educational circles. Before moving to Nottingham during the Second World War, she had lectured teacher training at Goldsmiths College and published on teaching art to children. Gibbs was an official war artist who received several commissions from the War Artist’s Advisory Committee. The mural at St Martin’s was completed in 1946 and is the only one of five by the Midland Group created at that time which survives. The Bilborough mural is Gibbs’s own design depicting the Annunciation, and it was painted by Gibbs herself with assistance from fellow group member Claude Price.

The great expansion of Bilborough’s population in the mid-C20 increased St Martin’s congregation and lead to an extension designed by Colin Shewring (1924-95) being added in 1972. Colin was the brother of the Rector at the time, Derek Shewring, and is the architect of two churches on the National Heritage List for England listed at Grade II: the Church of the Holy Family, Blackbird Leys (NHLE reference 1464513) which was completed in 1965, and the 1972 Church of St Peter, Ravenshead, (NHLE 1449410). The 1972 extension is not listed. The attachment to the church required the removal of the north wall of the medieval chancel and a Victorian vestry at the west end of that wall. The ceiling of the new building extended into the chancel, obscuring the barrel vaulting. The glass in the Chancel’s east window was destroyed at his time, and it was thought that the Gibbs mural was lost during these works. After completion of the extension, the nave of the old church was curtained off and the altar was moved to the west end of the chancel, with the south part of the extension now used as the nave. The font was moved from the west end of the nave to the south-west corner of the new nave in the extension.

Between 2010-14 the church underwent further restorations. Works were carried out to the tower, a glass door was added to the south porch, the 1970s concrete floor was removed from nave and chancel, new glass was inserted to the east window and a folding glass screen doorway was installed between the chancel and the 1970s extension. The altar and font were returned to their pre-1972 positions and, on completion, the old nave was brought back into use for worship. It was during these works that the Gibbs murals were rediscovered, and subsequently restored.

Reasons for Listing

St Martin of Tours Church and boundary walls are listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest:

* St Martin’s Church consists largely of fabric from the C14 and C15 which provides evidence for medieval phasing and it survives as a notable example of a medieval English parish church;

* later additions such as the C16 Helwys monument, Victorian ceiling and the C20 mural by Evelyn Gibbs add to the interest of the church.

Historic Interest:

* St Martin is a good example of a small medieval parish church which has been the spiritual centre of its community for centuries.

External Links

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