The church underwent some repairs in 1804, when the old roof was
taken off and lowered. In 1850 there was a considerable and unhappy
restoration, when the old two-light wooden-framed traceried windows
of fourteenth-century date (one of them is drawn or described in Mr.
Massie’s paper just cited) were removed and plainer three-light windows
substituted. A yet more considerable restoration took place, under Mr.
Butterfield, in 1871, when the old north door was closed, the south
porch rebuilt, and much new work introduced into the outer woodwork of
the tower. Fortunately Mr. Massie’s paper on the timber churches of
the county is illustrated by drawings of the exterior and interior of
Marton church, as well as of the inner timber framework of the tower,
taken before Mr. Derrick, the architect of 1850-51, had begun his
doubtless well-intentioned but sadly destructive work. From these it
can be gathered that at that time the body of the fabric was much the
same as when originally built by Sir John Davenport.
The substantial pointed wooden entrance on the west side of the tower
basement, as well as the doorway within the south porch, appears to
be fourteenth century. In the interior there are two substantial oak
pillars on each side of the nave supporting arcades of three arches.
These pillars are octagonal, with projecting moulded capitals, and
from these capitals spring timbers forming an arch across the nave,
as at Nether Peover. The dimensions of the nave are 37 ft. 9 in. in
length, with a complete width of 33 ft. The church evidently underwent
considerable alteration and improvement in the fifteenth century,
at which time a substantial wooden tower was added at the west end,
surmounted by a broached spire. The massive timber framework to
support the belfry and spire is carried out after the same fashion as
the best of the wooden towers of Essex. It has a projecting course of
buttressing timbers to the lower stage, which is covered with lean-to
roofs. The interior measurements of the ground-plan of the tower
are 23 ft. 9 in. north and south by 17 ft. 1 in. east and west. The
outer uprights of the framework of this lower stage have an effective
quatrefoil pattern at the head of each division just below the eaves.
The last restoration was done on somewhat meagre lines, for several
of these quatrefoils and other parts of the outer timbers are of
black-painted deal. The roofing of this part is in stone slates, and
the octagonal spire is shingled.
At the time of the restoration of the church in 1871, the chancel,
which had been rebuilt in brick about 1800, was restored externally
in woodwork. The whole of the outer black-and-white framework of the
church now consists of uprights of timber, at a short distance apart,
banded together by a horizontal transom, the intervals being filled up
with plaster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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