Monument record 10073 - Church of St Martin of the Ash

<1> Alldridge N.J, 1981, Aspects of the topography of early medieval Chester (Article in Journal). SCH5931.

<2> Jones, D., 1957, The Church in Chester 1300-1540, /7 & 10 (Book). SCH3106.

Lucian the monk in his description of the city first mentioned the Church of St Martin of the Ash in the late 12th century and it appears to have remained a small church. Its parish was restricted to the south west of the city between the Roman and medieval walls (in an area largely taken up by ecclesiastical structures) but later included a detached portion in the Crofts to the north west. In the 13th century the church was under the patronage of the Orby family and was subsequently among those possessions granted by them to the collegiate church of St John the Baptist in around 1318. Following the Dissolution the advowson was transferred to the Cathedral. It was later united with St Bridget’s in 1842.

<3> Hemingway, J., 1831, History of Chester, from its foundation to the present time. Volume 1, 2/99-101 (Book). SCH1436.

Drawing by Randle Holme in the late 17th century, shows nave with buttressed west end, entered via wooden porch up flight of steps, apsidal chancel and bellcote west end.

<4> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Ormerod G 1882 1/332-333 (Book). SCH1389.

By 1721, the church was ruinous and was rebuilt.

<5> Harris, B.E., 1979, Bartholomew City Guides - Chester, /117 (Book). SCH394.

Etching by Batenham in CCL shows west tower of three storeys with stone quoins and corner pinnacles. Round-headed windows to aisles with enlarged keystones. It was bought by the Corporation in 1964 and demolished prior to construction of the inner ring road.

<6> Lewis C.P & Thacker A.T. (eds), 2005, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume Vii, The City of Chester - The City of Chester, Culture, Buildings, Institutions (Book). SCH6522.

<7> The Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, 1912, 'Liber Luciani de Laude Cestrie' Medieval guide book of Cheshire c.1195 (Journal/Periodical). SCH5950.

<8> Gifford and Partners, 1994, Weaver Street, Chester: Report on an Archaeological Evaluation., R2062.1 (Client Report). SCH4135.

Archaeological investigations at Weaver Street in 1994 included a single trench excavated in the vicinity of the former graveyard encountering a foundation for a wall of blue brick, tentatively associated with the church itself however no dating evidence was recovered and it is uncertain what period this wall may relate to.

<9> Archaeological Research Services Ltd, 2019, A Rapid Archaeological Assessment of Cuppin Street Car Park, Chester, R4300 (Client Report). SCH8735.

An archaeological desk-based assessment was undertaken in 2019 for a plot of land off Cuppin Street, Chester, prior to the proposed re-development. The proposed area of development coincides with the former site of the Church of St. Martin and its graveyard (CHER 10073/1) which occupies the north‐west part of the site. The assessment discusses the potential early medieval origins of the Church and documents the mapped evidence for the site, the earliest map dating 1581 (Braun and Hogenberg).

In summary, the map regression exercise identified that the churchyard surrounding the church has apparently remained much the same size and shape since at least the late 18th century, although there is some inconclusive evidence from a single map that it did expand slightly before contracting again. Prior to this date, the mapping was drawn relatively schematically with the result that that no definitive conclusions can be reached regarding the location or size of the graveyard prior to this time. It is noteworthy that all of the earlier maps that depict a churchyard show its southern boundary as straight, but the 1875 OS Town Plan shows this as veering to the north from a point towards the eastern end of the church , and this suggests that there may have been some encroachment into the churchyard by the buildings at the northern side of Francis’s Court. Although there is good evidence to indicate that the known graves (i.e. the ones with gravestones) were disinterred and moved to Blacon cemetery in 1964 ahead of the construction of the inner ring road, the earliest of these dated to 1729 and it is considered highly likely that these were only the most recent burials that had been interred after a phase of ‘tidying up’ that was likely to have occurred around the time that the church was re‐built in 1721. Consequently it is concluded that it is likely that many unidentified burials dating back for centuries would still be present within the former graveyard, and it is also possible that graves may exist beyond the known extents of the graveyard.