St Martin's Church, St Martin's

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Wed, 07/01/2026 - 00:00

It was a joy to call this autumn at St Martin’s Church in the village of St Martin’s, close to Oswestry in Shropshire. The church was closing for the day, but a friendly fellow engaged in cleaning was only too pleased to show me round, while a Bible Study group next door concluded its affairs.

As well as being a generally interesting old building with a few peculiar features, such as a rather bizarre late medieval or Tudor-looking wooden effigy stuck to the wall, a gigantic wooden, three-decker pulpit dominated the north aisle. Evidently removed from its original place in front of the chancel which it would have overshadowed, it has been shunted to corner, as some historical curiosity. I cannot entirely blame the church authorities for this; I would sooner have a small, plain lectern from which the gospel is preached than some gigantic edifice from which spouts only froth and bubble. Rather delightfully, and which is a most refreshing experience for people like me who visit churches and look up their websites, St Martin’s of St Martin’s has a ‘What we Believe’ section, and a superb video about the gospel for people to watch. The old pulpit might be gone, but the old gospel is still shared. Thank God.