The History

St Martin’s is the perfect High Victorian church.  In its history and within its walls can be found every sort of Victorian concern and obsession. It was brought into being by the rapid urban expansion of the 1850s and it was made possible (typically) by the great generosity of a Victorian spinster. Its outer form and furnishings are the product of the medievalism of Victorian art: determined to recall an earlier Age of Faith, its robust realism and its involved symbolism. The church of St Martin, Scarborough, remains to this day the physical and spiritual heir to the love of ritual in worship which came out of Oxford in the 1840s. St Martin’s represents an increasingly precious inherit ance in art. history and worship.

 The Beginnings  

Development came to the South Cliff of Scarborough late in the l840s with the building of the Crown Hotel and Crown Terrace at the northern end of what is now the Esplanade. It was linked to the medieval town of Scarborough by the Spa Bridge (built in 1827). By 1858 South Cliff was criss-crossed by a network of new roads and drains, and terraces and crescents were steadily rising as plots were acquired and developed. The medieval church of St Mary in the old town was hard-pressed to cope with the demand for seats in the summer. As a result, the worthies of the corporation of Scarborough and the directors of the South Cliff Company (who were more or less the same body of men) set up a committee to raise a new church in the expanding suburb.

 Despite the company’s gift of a building plot on Albion Road. the committee had not got very far with raising the necessary funds by 1859. When the scheme was on the point of foundering, a South Cliff resident, Miss Mary Craven, stepped in to rescue it. The committee had already secured her assistance to the total of £1,000; she now offered to guarantee the full £6000 estimated as the building cost, and another £1000 needed to endow the parish. Mary Craven (1814-1889) was one of the four daughters of Robert Martin Craven, a wealthy Hull surgeon who had retired to South Cliff (living at 5, Esplanade) and had recently died. She saw the new church as a memorial to her father. The dedication to St Martin of Tours was chosen by her as his name-saint; this was stated in the address she composed for the ceremony of laying the foundation stone in November 1861 (an event ill health obliged her to miss).

 Mary Craven was responsible for more than the financing of the new church. Her family connection with Hull secured a vicar for the parish, the Rev’d Robert Henning Parr (1826-1888). Parr was an energetic and eloquent High Churchman, and had been connected with the church of Holy Trinity, Hull, since 1856, when he had been a curate there. He had moved from Hull to the archbishop of York’s staff at Bishopthorpe, where he was examining chaplain to the archbishop. But a promising career on the ecclesi­astical heights was cut short in 1860, at the death of his patron, Archbishop Musgrave. At a loose end once more in Hull, he accepted the invitation to take up the new living of St Martin’s. Miss Craven may also have been responsible for the selection of an architect for the new church. George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907) was himself also the son of a Hull physician, William Hulme Bodley. Although the Bodileys moved to Brighton in the 1840s, they must have been well known to the Cravens, and there is the suspicion of a family connection. Both Parr and Bodley were in their mid-thirties at this time; ener­getic and forceful men at the beginning of distin­guished careers. Through them, Mary Craven put a deep physical and spiritual imprint on the future of the church she had made possible.

The church designed by Bodley for Miss Craven was one of his earliest. Until 1851 he had been the pupil of one of the greatest of all Victorian church archi­tects, George Gilbert Scott (whose brother had in fact married one of Bodley’s sisters). Bodley’s indepeAd­ent practice had only recently begun when he won the commission for St Martin’s. However, a Cotswold church which he had already designed (France Lynch, 1855-7) had defined his style. Reacting against Scott’s preference for the English Decorated period, Bodley had embraced the simplicity of French Gothic of the thirteenth century. Another influence on Bodley at this time was the group of artists known as the Pre-Raphaelites. The leading members of this group: William Morris (1834-96), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82) and Edward Burne-Jones(1833-98) had recently become established figures in the world of art. Bodley had joined them as a member of the Hogarth Club. devised in 1859 by another associate of the group, Ford Maddox Brown (182 1-93) as a vehicle for artists to meet potential.patrons. In 1861, William Morris had masterminded the foundation of the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. to promote his ideas of decor, particularly in church furniture. He worked closely in this enterprise with the architect and craftsman, Philip Speakman Webb (183 1-1915). Bodley immediately engaged the services of the new company in his commission for St Martin’s, working simultaneously with Morris and his associates on the churches of St Michael, Brighton and All Saints, Selsley, Gloucestershire. As early works of Morris & Co., these ‘sister’ churches are artistically most valuable, and of them all St Martin’s is the most complete survivor; a remarkable treasury of Victorian art.

 The original church of St Martin was designed, as Bodley’ s churches often were, as a simple structure of nave and chancel, with aisle and aisle chapels. Its distinctive tower was placed at the north west corner of the church; carefully sited to rise above the roof line of Albion Road, and on the very crest of the hill above the Ramsdale valley. It thus dominated south­ern views from the old town. Faithful to its French Gothic inspiration, the church is very high, and the tower (with the sort of saddleback roof commonly found in the parish churches of Normandy) is propor­tionally higher. As a result, the external and internal dimensions of the church are most striking. The impressive austerity of the architecture is emphasised by the simplicity of the ornament to the exterior: plain, plate tracery, simple pilaster buttresses and plain string courses. The ashlar stonework empha­sises this simplicity. The Whitby stone used (from quarries at Aislaby, twenty-five miles away) has darkened over the years, and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner’s word sketch of the church is very apt: ‘Dark, sombre stone. Large, strong and never showy’.

 The church was completed by April 1863, but at this point an ecclesiastical storm blew up, and delayed the consecration. It was still general at this time for an incumbent’s income to be drawn from rented pews, rather than free collections. The Rev’d R.H. Parr decided as a matter of principle to forgo this sort of income. He was a supporter of the ‘free and open’ movement. This caused a considerable local row, and attempts were made through the archbishop to estab­lish the traditional system at St Martin’s. Part of the opposition can be accounted for by the suspicions of the dominant Low Church faction in Scarborough, which deeply suspected the ‘poperies’ of Parr and his patron. But with Miss Craven’s support, the opposi­tion was overcome, and the new church was conse­crated by Archbishop Thomson on 11 July 1863 .

 Additions to the church were soon being planned. All of them were executed by G.F. Bodley, and the church as it stands is singularly his own. Bodley’s connec­tion with Mary Craven and the parish of St Martin involved him in work in Scarborough throughout his long and distinguished career. He built two other churches in Scarborough: St Michael’s (the other church in St Martin’s parish) and the church of All Saints in Falsgrave (now gone) of which Miss Craven was also a benefactor. It is a little amusing to see at St Martin’s how the original austerity of Bodley’s style became softened as he grew older. He in fact returned to the fourteenth-century inspiration of Scott, his old master. The first addition in 1869 was a vestry and sacristy on the south east side of the church. This addition was intended to include an upper storey to house a church school, but local objections led to two South Cliff residents providing an alternative site on Ramshill Road. It was erected in 1872, funded by a gift of £1000 from Miss Mary Craven. The school closed in 1922 (although its primary section still continues to this day on another site), and is now the White Rose Restaurant.

 The seating of the first St Martin’s was inadequate for the demand for places in the summer season. Extra services had to be arranged in the school. Parr devised a grand scheme to extend the church on all fronts, including an extra south aisle, a bay and narthex at the west end, and a baptistry. In the event, there was not enough money for the aisle, but the rest was carried out to Bodley’s design in 1879, increasing capacity to 1200. The new western bay and recon­structed west end was in as simple a style as the original (although different in detail). But the narthex and baptistry are representative of the new Bodley: the narthex battlemented and panelled. One further addition was made in 1902, when the north aisle chapel was extended east as far as Carlton Terrace to form the present Lady Chapel. Again, the architect was Bodley, and the church as it now stands is more or less as he left it.

The Church and its Furnishings -  The Nave

 The nave (as originally completed in 1863) was of five bays, with chamfered and hollow orders on the arches. The piers are alternately octagonal and shafted, with filleted capitals on both, rather anachronistically late in style for the chosen Early Gothic. It is easy to work out from the stonework of the north and south sides where the additional bay was built in 1879. Also, the arches of the new bay and the narthex have no capitals. The height of the nave and the clerestory above is most impressive, especially as the roof is pitched high, faithful to Bodley’s thir­teenth-century inspiration and the beams are open.

 It is worthwhile noting the one reserved seat in the nave. This is to be found on the north side, behind the original churchwardens’ pews at the front. The brass plate tells us that it was Miss Craven’s, and it has been preserved as a memorial to her since her death. What sort of woman was she? The whole church is rich in remembrances of her character, although this seat is somehow more evocative than the rest. One can almost imagine the pious spinster perched here, with a good view of the proceedings in the chancel (unscreened until after her death). She seems to have been given to nervous illness and some minor eccen­tricities. The glass reveals a partiality for the royal family at a time when it was generally unpopular. Yet this presumably proper spinster was accused of ‘purloining flowers from the grounds of the nearby. She died aged seventy-five in March 1889. The report of her funeral (held in St Martin’s) talks of a ‘large congregation’ and ‘very numerous’ wreaths. The body was then taken by train to Hull, and is buried in the Craven family vault in the church of Sculcoates.

 South Aisle

 All the glass in the south aisle belongs to a later phase of the Morris & Co. work at St Martin’s; however, it is integrated with the other glass in the church in an overall scheme. The south aisle glass features figures from the New Testament and the Lives of the Saints; the north aisle glass is drawn from characters from the Old Testament.

 The two westernmost windows were commissioned in 1872 by Mary Craven and are associated with the recovery of the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) from a severe attack of typhoid, a disease he is said to have caught at Scarborough while staying at the home of the earl of Londesborough in the Cres­cent. In November 1871 the prince’s death was expected daily, but in mid-December he pulled through. The loyal Miss Craven responded warmly, as did most of the nation, at the news of the prince’s recovery. Queen Victoria, however, blamed Scarbor­ough for the scare, and could never be got to say a good word for the resort afterwards.

 The westernmost window illustrates the legend of SS Dorothea and Theophilus. Dorothea was mocked by Theophilus on her way to martyrdom: the appearance of an angel from the Paradise he had derided led to his immediate conversion and subsequent martyrdom. The design of the window was by Edward Burne­Jones (for which he was paid £12). The Dorothea (left) is believed to have been modelled on Jane Burden, wife of William Morris. It was installed in 1873, but the angel and Theophilus panels have been restored following damage by intruders late in the 1980s.

 The central window is again by Burne-Jones. It features SS Peter, Stephen and Paul (NOTE: ailfigures in window lights are listed from left to right). The glass in the tracery is by Philip Webb, the associate and friend of Morris from the time when they worked together in the office of the architect, G.E. Street, in 1856-7. He and Morris undertook much of the work in St Martins. The inscription around the shield in the tracery reads: ‘And they saw his face as it had been the face of an angel’ (Acts, 6. 15) a reference to St Stephen as he stood his trial before the high priest and the council in Jerusalem.

 The eastern window is remarkable. It featuresSS Mary Magdalene, Mary the Virgin and Mary of Bethany. The Virgin is by Burne-Jones, the others by Morris. All three are typical pre-Raphaelite women with characteristic long red-blond hair. Mary of Bethany is said to have been modelled on Elizabeth Siddall, Rossetti’s mistress and later wife, a consump­tive who died from an overdose of laudanum in February 1862 at the time when St Martin’s was being built. The window was originally intended for St Michael’s, Brighton, but was installed with the Morris windows in 1868 as a family memorial to Agnes Phoebe Marshall. The Mary Magdalene may have been drawn from Annie Miller, another pre­Raphaelite model. The Virgin Mary is modelled on Georgiana MacDonald, who married Bume-Jones in 1860.

 North Aisle

The eastemmost window features Isaiah (Morris), Daniel and Ezekiel (Burne-Jones). It was commis­sioned by Mary Craven as a thank-offering for the success of the 1872 mission in St Martin’s parish. Early in that year a sustained mission effort was made with very pleasing results for church attendance. A St Martin’s Guild (for ladies and gentlemen) was founded to consolidate the effort. The Guild came under virulent local attack from evangelical Anglicans as a popish, quasi-monastic organisation, tainted by Masonic oaths and secrecy. Parr defended it just as stoutly as his decision over pew-rents. The Daniel figure is believed to have been modelled on Rossetti’s friend, the poet A.C. Swinburne (1837-1909). Swinburne’s lower lip was twisted by a dog-bite he sustained as a boy. The tracery glass is by Webb and shows one of Daniel’s lions. The text: ‘Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee’ (Dan. 6. 16) was spoken by Darius when consigning Daniel to the lion’s den.

 The next window to the west features Joshua, St Michael the Archangel (Peter Paul Marshall) and Gideon (Ford Maddox Brown). It was installed in 1862 in memory of one Major Monnins (died 1860). It is therefore amongst theearliest glass of Morris & Co. Marshall was one of the partners of Morris’s firm, but soon returned to his original profession of sanitary engineer; these two are some of the few windows he executed for Morris. Brown’s Gideon is a strong composition and a similar window by him is to be seen in the Bradford City Art Gallery.

 The third window towards the west features Hezekiah (George Campfield) David (Morris) and Josiah (Campfield). The window was installed in 1862 in memory of Prince Albert (who died December 1861): another loyal gesture from Mary Craven to her sovereign.

 The westernmost window on the north side features Moses, Melchizedek and Aaron (Burne-Jones). It dates to 1 872 and therefore is linked to the westernmost windows on the south side; like them it is a tribute of sympathy from Miss Craven to the royal family, this time to Queen Victoria herself.

 The Screen and Chancel Arch

 The screen was added to the church in 1894 to a design by Bodley; it is topped in proper medieval style by a great cross (rood) with associated figures of SS Mary and John the Evangelist. The decoration of the wall above it was painted by Bodley himself in 1862, although it is now badly faded. The wall nearly marked the end of Bodley’s career. While working on the narrow scaffolding erected for the painting work, a temporary gas-jet set up for lighting purposes flared up in his face, almost sending him toppling backwards into the nave and singeing his whiskers.

This is a simple construction but elaborate in its decoration. The front panels were painted by George Campfield to designs by Brown and Morris. The upper panels show the Four Evangelists, and the lower panels the Four Doctors of the Western Church (Augustine of Hippo, Gregory, Jerome and Ambrose of Milan). These are the characters generally por­trayed on surviving examples of medieval pulpits. The north side features the Annunciation in two panels by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The scene is a medieval rose-garden and Mary is seated reading a devotional work: the angel looks over the trellis in the upper panel, almost as if he were a lover in a medieval romance. The enclosed garden here is a symbol of Mary’s virginity. The composition is unusual and affecting. The framing is decorated by fleur-de-lis and birds. These are Pre-Raphaelite puns. The birds are martins, alluding to the saint of the dedication; the fleur de lis refer to Mary the Virgin. There are more martins and fleur de lis on the south side of the pulpit, cleverly inverted so that they are in fact identical. The pulpit was commissioned in 1862, but the panels depicting the Four Doctors were not licensed until 1873, due to the opposition of Archbishop Thomson to their inclusion; they were thought too popish.

 The Organ and Organ Case

 The organ screen looking into the south aisle features four angels painted by R. Spencer Stanhope, an associate of Morris. The screen and case were designed by Bodley for the church’s second organ. The first organ was a small Willis, which was re­placed by an over-ambitious instrument from Harrisons of Durham (then in the early days of the firm). The four-manual organ was simply too large for the case in which it was set. It was removed in 1890 and replaced by the present, noble three-manual ‘Father’ Willis. The Harrison organ is now in a church in Wallingford, Berkshire.

 The Chance!

The Canopy

The painted canopy of honour above the altar was painted by Philip Webb. Webb was paid at a rate of £2 a day for his work. It is unrestored, and when illuminated some years ago by the camera lights of a BBC crew filming a documentary about Frederick Delius, was found to be in pristine condition. It is now floodlit.

 Clerestory Lights

 These were commissioned by Mary Craven in 1871 and are by Philip Webb. They show the symbols of the evangelists, and are thank offerings for the recovery from illness of the Rev’d R.H. Parr and G.F. Bodley.

 East Window

 This is a somewhat confusing window, although its symbolism is quite plain. The top central panel is a Crucifixion by Ford Maddox Brown; unusually the Mary and John hold hands. The surrounding panels are to designs by Rossetti of 1861. They won the silver medal at the South Kensington International Exhibition of 1862. As executed here the designs appear to be rather jumbled, but they tell the story of the Parable of the Vineyard, by which Christ foretold his death on the cross; the fulfilment of which is Brown’s Crucifixion. The Virgin and Child in the tracery is by Burne-Jones, and was originally intended for St Michael’s, Brighton.

 East Wall

 The original design of the wall below the east window was by Bodley. The blank tracery is early English Decorated in inspiration, but not modelled on the tracery of Kirkham Priory (Yorkshire) as has been suggested. The four archangels in the north and south panels and the angels in the central panel were painted by Campfield to designs by Morris, and the central Adoration of the Magi to designs by Burne-Jones. The work was painted and repainted between 1863 and 1865, but had so far deteriorated by 1889 as to need restoration by Thomas Farren. The wall pos­sesses a rich symbolism. The yellow pomegranate flowers symbolise resurrection, and the pelican on the central gable (seen ‘in its piety’: feeding its young with its own blood) represents the sacrifice of Christ. The whole east wall and window proclaim redemption through Christ’s incarnation and blood, and it answers the theme of the west windows, which depict Adam and Eve, whose fall made redemption necessary, and the promise represented by the Annunciation.

 The Reredos and Altar

 The reredos was added in 1890 to a design by Bodley. The panels are in bas relief and were executed by the firm of Farrer and Brindley. The central panel is the Annunciation and it is flanked by two early bishops of York, Wilfrid (left) and Paulinus (right). Winged panels featuring the four archangels give it the air of a triptych. This, together with the classical altar, replaced an earlier plain altar table which is now in the church of St Michael at Wheatcroft, at the south­ern end of the parish. St Martin’s has a rich collection of altar frontals; the most famous of them, the ‘red frontal’ is thought to be the work of Jane Morris, wife of William.

 The Lady Chapel

 The north aisle chapel in 1863 went only as far as the end of the first bay of the chancel. In 1902 the chapel was extended eastwards as far as the line of the east wall of the chancel, so as to form the present Lady Chapel. The architect was Bodley.

 The second vicar of St Martin’s, Charles Coleridge Mackarness (died 1917) was beginning the celebration of morning communion in the Lady Chapel at 8.OSam, 16 December 1914 , when the bombardment of Scar­borough by a German battle squadron began. One of the first shells damaged the east gable of the church. Archdeacon Mackarness carried on regardless throughout the bombardment. which lasted twenty minutes. On returning to the vicarage, he found that shrapnel had entered through the window of his study and penetrated the bookshelf behind his desk.

 The east and south walls of the Lady Chapel are painted in a brocade pattern, featuring \larian mono­grams, crowns and lilies, with part of the angel’s salutation to Mary: Dominus tecum: Benedicta tu in mulieribus (‘The Lord be with thee: Blessed art thou amongst women’, Luke 1. 28). The names of the Seven Virtues, in Latin, feature underneath. The walls were repainted in 1955.

 Windows

 The former east window of the 1863 chapel was moved to form the east window on the north side of the new Lady Chapel. Because it was so large, a gabled dormer roof had to be constructed to accom­modate its height (this can be seen best from outside). The three lights of the window show St John Baptist preaching penitence. The design is by William Morris, the tracery glass is by Philip Webb. The window was the gift of Mrs John Hesp, whose late husband had been a member of the committee to promote the construction of St Martin’s and had been mayor of Scarborough. A memorial to the Hesps can be seen in St Mary’s in the old town.

 The west window of the chapel is one of the more satisfying compositions in the church. It is by Morris and Webb, and depicts Boaz and Ruth in the harvested field, where Ruth is gleaning for ears of corn in a most inappropriately elaborate fifteenth-century robe. The window commemorates the good harvest of 1863. Above, in the tracery. is a prophet (Isaiah) by Webb bearing a scroll reading : Virga de radice Jesse (‘A rod from the stem of Jesse’, Is. 11. 1). This is a reference to the line of kings of Israel which sprang from the union of Boaz and Ruth, and ultimately to the promised Christ; for Joseph was descended from Jesse, Ruth’s grandson.

 This dominating feature is later Bodley, very elab­orate with some kinship to the reredos of the Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral, a contemporary work by Bodley. A Virgin and Child are flanked by the prophets Malachi (left) and Isaiah (right). The work was carried out by L. Turner of Scarborough.

 The West End

 Clerestorv Glass

 The eight clerestory windows in the body of the nave represent a variety of angels. They are by Morris and Co. and were made from designs originally intended for the roof of the chapel of Jesus College, Cam­bridge. The angels are set against a background of quarries (square panels of clear glass painted with foliage). The result is a series of windows which allow the maximum of light into the upper church. Emma Hill (with whom he had eloped in 1848 when she was fifteen), as Adam and Eve. They are (as Brown put it) ‘in attitudes of indolent repose’. Adam is tickling a bear with his foot; Eve cradles a bird. The lancets were donated by Mary Craven at a cost of £100.

 The North Cross

The single light above the fifth bay of the nave represents St John Baptist. It is by Morris and Co. and was a gift by Agnes Phoebe Marshall to com­memorate the birth of her first grandchild. Originally the font stood in the bay below this window, hence its theme. Before the building of the baptistry, the main entrance to the church was through the north door, under the tower, from Albion Road.

 West Windows

 The west wall, though moved westward a bay in 1879, retains the original windows of 1862-3. The rose window has a central Annunciation by Burne­Jones. The nine cusped panels around it show angels with instruments, and are to designs by Burne-Jones and Morris. The Annunciation was originally de­signed as a composition for tiles, but substituted for the rose window, when the first plan (for a Last Judgement) was abandoned.

 The two lancets below the rose window are by Ford Maddox Brown. They show the artist and his wife, Seated on a corbel, above the North Door, is a cross showing a Christ in Majesty. It was originally intended as a war memorial and stood to the left of the South Porch in the middle of a lawn. Strangely, it was regarded as offensive to Low Church sensitivities in post-war Scarborough. The then vicar, H.M.St C. Tapper, had brought St Martin’s to new heights of ritual­ism, having the church licensed for the use of incense in 1919. This opposition seems to have been behind an attempt to burn the cross down in 1921. It was then re­moved indoors for safety, and the present stone cross was substituted. The flames painted around the base of the cross, and some stubborn dark marks, still recall this early act of vandalism.

 The door above the cross opens from the bell-chamber of the tower. The chamber was used for vestry meetings until 1869. The church possesses two bells, although a full peal of six was originally intended.

 The Baptistry

 This was an addition of 1879. All the glass is by the firm of Burlisson & Grylls, founded by Bodley’s partner, Thomas Garner. The west side window showing Christ triumphant commemorates the church’s ‘munificent benefactress’, Mary Craven. The Burlisson & Grylls glass, although fine of its type, does not compare with that of Morris & Co. The font is on its original base, but the York Stone basin is a replacement of the 1 950s for the original bowl, which cracked.

 The Narthex

This interesting extension dates from 1879. The piers of the three bays are constructed without capitals. The glass is by Burlisson & Grylls.

 The Parish Office

 The parish office stands on the south side, west of the south door. Until 1987 it was the chapel of St George. The chapel was used as a requiem chapel for the overnight reception of biers. It belongs to the exten­sions of 1879, but the west window is earlier and was the original west window of the south aisle, removed to a new position. It is perhaps the finest window in the church. It is by Ford Maddox Brown and shows two episodes from the life of St Martin. On the left St Martin divides his cloak with a beggar, on the right he sees the same cloak in heaven in the hands of Christ and supported by angels. The composition is artificial (and in fact defies perspective) but is satisfy­ing for all that. The colours are very fine. The window was commissioned by Miss Mary Craven as a memorial to her mother, Jane, who died in 1862. The southern windows are by Burlisson & Grylls.