St Martin of Tours - Church of St Martin - York, Great Britain
N 53° 57.554 W 001° 05.053
30U E 625694 N 5980685
The Church of St Martin Coney Street, features a medieval window made in around 1447 and showing scenes from the life of St Martin of Tours. The church is often called St Martin Le Grand, and is located in York, Great Britain.
Waymark Code: WMK7BV
Location: North East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/23/2014
Views: 2
As you walk into St Martins Church, you are faced with a stunning stained glass window from floor to ceiling over 30 feet high.
St Martin le Grand Church is most famous for the highly decorative clock overhanging York's main shopping street. St Martin's dates from at least the 11th century and was one of York's main parish churches and the civic church. Located in Coney St.
"From the street, St Martin's appears for the most part to be a typical 15th century parish church. But look through the railings from Coney Street and you get something very different - distinctively 1950s but with hints of a much longer history. Neither view prepares you for what you will see inside.
The nine metre high 15th century St Martin window immediately facing you as you go in rises from floor to ceiling. Made in around 1447 and showing scenes from the life of St Martin of Tours." Text Source: (
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St Martin's Church from Wikipedia Churches in York:
"Often known as St Martin le Grand, though this title was coined in the 1830s and is not the official name of the church. The earliest masonry is from c1080, though the church is thought to be older. The church was largely destroyed in a bombing raid on 29 April 1942, but the 15th-century tower and south aisle remain, with a new vestry and parish room at the west end of the site. The St Martin window of c. 1437 was removed before the raid for safety; now occupying a new transept opposite the south door, it is the largest medieval window in York outside the Minster. The church is most notable now for the restoration under the architect George Gaze Pace, completed in 1968, which is generally considered one of the most successful post-war church restorations in the country, successfully blending the surviving 15th-century remains with contemporary elements. The church is also known for the prominent clock overhanging the street, topped by the figure of a naval officer dating from 1778." Text Source: (
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Parish Church of St. Martin, Coney Street, has walls of magnesian limestone, ashlar, some rubble, and a little gritstone. The roof is covered with lead. The church was badly damaged by enemy action in 1942 and was partly reconstructed in 1961–8 to the designs of the late Mr. George Pace. The ruined building was recorded before the reconstruction was put in hand and the accompanying plans show the building before 1942 and as it is now.
The church is first mentioned in a document of c.1160–80 the Domesday book, St. Martin being the church in Micklegate. A small aisleless church with no structural chancel was built probably at the end of the 11th century; the lower parts of its N. and W. walls remain in the existing N. and W. walls of the former N. aisle, and the S.W. corner was identified near the N.W. corner of the later nave. A break further S. in the masonry in the W. wall of the nave indicates that a small S. aisle was added to the original church, perhaps c. 1200.
The sequence of development through the 13th and 14th centuries has been obscured by extensive rebuilding in the 15th. The original N. wall of the early nave was extended to the E. in c. 1280 and blocked windows of this date remain in the N. wall. A general enlargement, by which the church was brought to its present size, was carried out before the end of the 14th century: a Nave was added S. of the original building and a South Aisle beyond it, with a Tower at its W. end. The 11th-century nave became a N. aisle." Text Source: (
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