St Martin's church - Osmaston, Derbyshire, UK - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

"Osmaston is situated 2.5 miles south east of Ashbourne. It is a  small estate village known for its thatched cottages situated by the village pond. It also has a church important in the context of Victorian church rebuilding, for it was the first neo Medieval Gothic church to be built in Derbyshire, by a local and largely self-taught architect.

In 1837, Mr Francis Wright, a banker of Nottingham, aquired about 107 acres of land in the village. He originally lived in one of the cottages overlooking the fishpond, probably so that he could oversee the construction of his new house, the Manor, which was completed in 1849.

We are reminded by Mark Askey, an expert on the Church’s designer, that on 6th April 1843, a meeting of the church vestry resolved to take down the old church and erect a new one on the site. By the end of May 1843, the old church had gone; foundations were laid and Wright laid the foundation stone on 8th June 1843.

The design was by Henry Isaac Stevens (1806-1873), an architect of some repute of Derby. The new church was one of Stevens’ best churches and marked a leap in his ability as a church designer. St Martin’s was a competent piece of church design in the Decorated (14th century) style. The key components which make the design radical for its time and radical for the East Midlands are the high-pitched roofs to the nave and chancel; the tall four-square west tower; the side aisles respecting a clerestory; buttresses which are structural and not pastiche; and the variety of stone tracery to the windows.

Above all, the plan of the new church was clearly medieval in form and not a barn-like preaching box as most churches at the time resembled. Stevens’ use of tracery work of the Decorated period of medieval Gothic architecture is its first use in a Derbyshire church at that time. A further element which makes it so interesting is the small octagonal vestry, resembling in miniature the chapter houses of the large cathedrals. It is an unusual and inspired design for the time in which it was built and one which Stevens was, unfortunately, not to use again. The church was built at a cost of £8,000 by William Evans of Ellastone. He was a kinsman of George Eliot, the novelist. It was consecrated on 25th June 1845. The pulpit, desk and fittings are all of oak, the pulpit being filled with panelled tracery. The font of Roche Abbey stone is a large circular bowl with continuous lotus ornament.
The tower contains a peal of six bells. Also of interest is a fine clock by Whitehurst of Derby, dated 1845, with a six feet dial and stroke.

As a final link between the church and the Manor, Stevens aligned the drive with the church tower.
Consequently, as Francis Wright drove in his carriage from his new house towards the village, his eyes would have been focused on the church tower, his spiritual gift to the village. Upon its completion in 1845, the press praised the church as “unquestionably one of the most beautiful structures in the county”."

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