Tour of St Martin's, Exning

This page contains a tour around St Martin's Exning (note more pictures to be added)
THE CHURCH BUILDING Both Roman and Norman masonry have been identified in the tower, so it can be assumed that there has been a church here since very early days. The earliest part of the present building is the Chancel, where two blocked slit windows can still be seen in the south wall which date from the late 12^th century. The tower has two bell stages, one above the other, the earlier showing work of up to 1300. The first set of bell openings, with their �Y� tracery, was extended probably in the 14^th century up to the present battlements. A new west window was installed at the same time, its tracery matching those in the Transepts. The wooden cupola containing the clock bell was added in the 18^th century. The 19^th century saw extensive restorations, the nave walls were heightened and new roofs added in the 1820�s, aisle windows and much of the chancel replaced in the 1860�s, together with a new east window, quite different in style from its predecessor. Surprisingly part of the decorated tracery in the north aisle windows is original and both 14^th century transepts have large end windows with fine reticulated tracery. There is a 15^th century Priest�s door with trefoils in the spandrels in the south chancel wall.
INSIDE THE CHURCH Entry is by the South Porch, where all is restored except the headstops of the outer arch. Going through the 14^th century inner door, note the large holes in the jambs where a heavy beam was set for security.

The interior is well kept and spacious. There are 14^th century arcades with octagonal piers, and a font of the same period with foliated crosses and shields in the bowl panels. All the ceilings are plastered. The 17^th century gallery in the tower arch originally accommodated the singers, but it now houses the organ which was moved from the north transept in 1965. The Organ underwent an extensive restoration programme in 1997. Look above it for the sanctus-bell window opening from the ringing chamber. There are two sets of Royal Arms: a large and dark Achievement of George II painted on board just by the south door, and a good example of a George III dated 1817 painted on canvas and displayed on the south wall.
Over by the north door is a large badly mutilated niche, with perpendicular tracery behind what was a crocketted canopy. It may have housed a statue of St Christopher or of the church�s patron saint, St Martin. In 1999 a new statue of St Martin was carved by a local stonemason, Charlie Hull and installed into the niche. It is believed that it is the first statue to be installed into an East Anglian parish church since the reformation, 400 years ago. The nave benches have 14^th century linenfold panelled ends and there are a few more in the south aisle; these are a century later than the majority of pews in East Anglia and may have replaced a very early set.
During the restorations in 1990 the linenfold panels were incorporated in some of the restored pews following an outbreak of dry rot, the number of pews being reduced. However, as a Millennium Project, nine new pews were made by a local craftsman Mr P. Symonds and installed during the latter months of 1999 ready for the Millennium.
In 1990 the entire Church was redecorated, rewired and re-lighted and extensive alterations were made to the chancel furnishings and the area in front of it, including carpeting. The floor of the chancel was raised six inches to accommodate the Choir apron in order to add flexibility in use, both in worship and other activities. The sanctuary floor was also raised six inches to establish a sense of width and proportion to the building and to carry the eye on up to the high altar where a sanctuary lamp had recently been installed. The nave floor was also re-bricked where the earlier wood flooring had rotted.
In the north transept a re-constructed free-standing sedelia incorporates a pair of 14^th century poppy-heads from the old quire and a bench with very slim Poppy-heads is from a late 14^th century or early 15^th century chancel set. It has a line of quatrefoil sound-holes under the plinth and there are vestiges of animals on the front buttresses. The altar in this Lady Chapel is a simple but satisfying late 16^th century table, and it carries a recent cross and candlesticks adorned with the emblems of St. Edmund. On the west wall of this transept is a most interesting early 17^th century memorial to Francis Robartson. It is a framed wooden square painted with a full achievement of his arms, and may have been used as a hatchment at his funeral, although the verse beneath makes it unlikely.	Stay passenger, not ev�ry Calverie Can tell thee of such Reliques as here lie, Here Lies one, that besides Coat-armorie, And other Monumentall braverie, T�adorne his Tombe hath left, ye memorie... Of Worth and Virtue Heavens heraidrie.
In 1996 when the heating required renovation, the crypt beneath the Lady Chapel was opened The lead coffins in it were in perfect condition The crypt is now sealed again.
The south transept was restored in 1971 when some very interesting things came to light including the aumbry in the east wall, a 13^th century piscina in the south wall, with dogtooth ornament in the moulding of the trefoil arch, and a rare example of a 14^th century double heart burial, also in the south wall. This is under a defaced ogee canopy and is divided into two compartments, each containing a pair of hands holding a heart.
In the 1990 refurbishment the transept was partitioned east to west to provide a spacious vestry for the clergy and the other part adjacent to the pulpit provides a satisfying chapel dedicated to St. Wendred
The 18^th century pulpit is tall, with a very high backboard and tester. It is plainly panelled in oak. There is now no chancel screen, but the stairs of the rood loft remain on the north side, and an opening on the south side shows that the loft probably extended over a parclase screen in the south transept originally, rather like the arrangement at Dennington. In the chancel there are deeply-set early english lancets and you will see that on the south side one has been cut into to make room. for the 13^th century Priest�s door. The 17^th century communion rails have nicely turned balusters but were extremely badly scumbled in the 1990 restoration. In the north-east corner of the Sanctuary is a purbeck marble tomb with indentations for brasses that have since been removed. The late 13^th century double piscina is now a pair of short lancets devoid of ornament, with the original centre shaft. The altar reredos consists of the decologue, Lord�s Prayer and creed painted on tin (a common and rather nasty 19^th century habit). The altar ecclesiological candlesticks are those discarded from the pulpit when it was demoted from two-decker status in 1909, and have happily found their way back to the church. They were possibly purchased originally by Thomas Frognall Dibdin, the memorable, if slightly zany bibliophile, who was vicar here from 1823 and who is remembered both for the pioneering and beautifully produced catalogue of the Spencer library at Althorp and for his own �Bibliomonia�
The Clerk�s desk, from the two-decker pulpit was fixed in the Chancel as the Incumbent�s Litany desk and unfortunately was also scumbled to match the altar rails in the 1990 restorations.
The Church you see to-day was probably built in the early thirteenth century. Come with me into the Church, into the Chancel, and you will find that this is not all what you would expect to find in an East Anglian Church. First of all it looks very Early English, and we know that in 1909, when certain alterations were being made, the walls were tapped and in the walls were found two windows earlier than the ones you see and earlier than the ones you may see from the outside. If you look from the outside you can see two lancet windows, bricked up or stoned up, and inside you find Early English windows. Also there is a bricked-up Priest's door which is in the south wall of the Chancel of earlier times than the one now in use.
In the Chancel you have a double piscina on the right-hand side, and it was used for washing the Priest's hands be�fore the Consecration. It was also used for washing the sacred vessels after Mass. We still use them for the Ablutions and the rinsing of the Vessels. A double piscina is not normal, and it is Early English type � very Early English
On the north wall you have a flat tomb. Again in 1909, the front was taken off and the inside revealed that it had contained the body of a Priest, and it has been held that it is a thirteenth century tomb of a thirteenth century Priest. Why the flat top ? First of all, the top had brasses on, but all the brasses in the Church disappeared many years ago. The reason for a flat top was this. In special cases, they were allowed to bury people in the Sanctuary, and so this Priest must have been of high repute to be allowed to be buried there; and the flat top was so that it could be used as an Easter Sepulchre. In Medieval times on Maundy Thursday, the Priest would consecrate three wafers; he would use one of them at the Mass on Maundy Thursday. The other two were kept; one was placed in the tabernacle for the Mass of the Pre-sanctified on Good Friday, when he was not allowed to consecrate; and the other was put in a ciborium (a cup with rounded lid and a cross on the top) and placed under a baldachino (which is a canopy covering) on the Easter Sepulchre till Easter morning. Then, with great rites, pomp and ceremony, it would be brought out, when all the people from the Parish would come to see this great sight of the consecrated wafer coming out of the Easter Sepulchre. This is a picture of our Lord being three days dead and rising again.
Then looking at the Chancel again, the rails, which have been disturbed a bit, are the original ones put in in Archbishop Laud's time � Charles I's Archbishop. In the old days when the people had Communion, the altar was brought out of the Chancel and put into the Nave and turned round so the Priest stood behind and the people took Communion standing or kneeling as they wished. Laud objected to this for many reasons; he said it should be put against the wall and rails put up to keep dogs away.
Just outside the rails on the north side there is a pew; that pew is part of the Medieval pews. It is probably, along with the pews in the Church, one of the oldest pieces of wood in use in the Church. If you look it is in the wrong position. It should be taken out and put where the Vicar's prayer desk is and put with one end against the wall and the other end against the gang-way. The back of it was part of the back of the screen, the Chancel screen. It was the Priests' return stall. When the Priests who were not celebrating had taken Communion, they would come back to sit there. Instead of being a normal Priests' stall, the floor is raised up and there are little holes cut in the front, so if you sing you sing not only with the voice but with the feet � you get extra power.
Behind the Priest's desk there is an entrance which goes to a winding staircase which used to be the entrance to the rood loft.
The pulpit used to be a double-decker, which is Carolingian, but in 1909 it was cut down to the present dimensions. Some of the wood was taken to King's yard and some used for panelling at back of pews. There were two candlesticks (Carolingian candlesticks), which found their way to the rubbish heap, and eventually went to the Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology, Cambridge. One of the Churchwardens and the Vicar brought them back and they are now above the Altar. They are three hundred years old and are supposed to be some of the best of their kind.
Now, the Chancel screen. If you take a look at the pew ends, double linenfold pew ends, you will notice that on the south side some of them are cut to make pew ends, which means that they were never originally pew ends. Look right along the bottom; there is a mark. If the pew ends were put together you would find there are three different kinds. This gives the assumption that these pew ends were really part of the Chancel screen. There are three different widths too. The pews themselves � some of the posts look like ancient posts which used to be connected to the scre
As to the organ loft, it was a Chapel � you see the niche which is there. The Victorians put in a fire-place, and somebody got the idea of putting the organ there to copy a Cathedral. The whole balance of the Church � which is Cruciform in structure � was spoilt by putting the organ in the wrong place instead of at the back of the Church or over the organ loft. In a Parish Church the correct thing to have was a little orchestra. The organ should be at the back where it will help people to sing. One day it is hoped to move it back where it should be, and the Lady Chapel can be used as a Chapel.
As you come down to the South Transept of the Church, in the South Aisle there is a thirteenth-century cross let in the floor. It is likely that this cross was carved 1200- 1250. It is where the South Transept meets the Main Aisle, and it is now getting worn away; is is made of Purbeck marble.
There is the hatchment to the Robertson family on the south-west corner of the Church. Two hundred years ago it was in Riesenprice Church; it disappeared, and suddenly it appears in Exning Church. In one of the quarterings you will find a heraldic device very close to one of the Cotton devices you see at Landwade. so probably there was a relationship and the hatchment was brought here for that reason.
The table in the vestry or organ loft is Tudor or Carol-ingian, and it was probably the first Altar in the Church after the Reformation. The one at the back of the Church is also an old table.
The stone coffin outside the west door ought to be brought inside the Church and cleaned. Stone coffins were in use from the seventh to thirteenth century. As there are no inscriptions or mouldings on this one it is impossible to fix the date of it, One day, if left where it is, it will crumble away.
One last thing, when the Architect was here in 1959, coming down the steps from the tower, he noticed embodied as part of a lintel a Norman consecration cross. The tower is a mixture of Roman material, Norman material, Early English, flint, everything. It is possible that when they were finishing off the Church Tower, as you see it at present, they incorporated brickwork from everywhere around.