St Martin's Church, Canterbury

wooden statue, south wall of the church]] St Martin's was the private chapel of Queen Bertha of Kent (died in or after 601) before Saint Augustine of Canterbury arrived from Rome in 597. Queen Bertha was a Christian Frankish princess who arrived in England with her chaplain, Bishop Liudhard. Her pagan husband, Æthelberht of Kent, allowed her to continue to practise her religion by renovating a Romano-British building (ca. AD 580). The Venerable Bede says the building had been in use as a church in the late Roman period but had fallen into disuse. Bede specifically names it as being dedicated to Martin of Tours, a city located near where Bertha grew up. Although Bede implies that the…

Local finds prove that Christianity did exist in this area of the city at the time, and the church contains many reused Roman bricks or spolia, as well as complete sections of walls of Roman tiles. At the core of the church the brick remains of a Roman tomb were integrated into the structure. Several sections of walls are clearly very early, and it is possible that a blocked square-headed doorway in the chancel was the entrance to Bertha's church, while other sections of wall come from the period after the Gregorian mission in the 7th or 8th centuries, including most of the nave. The apse that was originally at the east end has been removed. The tower is much later, in Perpendicular style.…