Marton church is unique in the country in being dedicated to St Esprit (a dedication that occurs in France but nowhere else in England). In the Middle Ages the church was appropriated by a French Order of Nuns in Nuneaton who dedicated it to the Holy Spirit, hence the name.
"The earliest known reference to the church goes back to between 1155 and 1160, when the then Lord of the Manor, the Earl of Warwick, granted the church as a gift to the Nuns of the Fontevraud Order at the Priory of the Blessed Virgin in Eaton (now St Mary’s Abbey Church in Nuneaton). It is, however, likely that a church, probably built of wood, had existed on the site much earlier, and that it was a “hundredal” church; an early mission centre from which itinerant priests sallied forth serving a wide district. Its importance is exemplified in a decree issued by Bishop Richard of Coventry in about 1170 requiring “vills” from a wide surrounding area, including Rugby, Grandborough, Shuckborough, Napton, Ladbroke and Hunningham (amongst others), to pay “churchaumber” of corn to the church of Marton.
It is probable that the church was rebuilt, in stone, between 1160 and 1291, when a record shows the church as “appropriated to Nuneaton, and valued at £4 13s 4d”. A rectory seems to have been appropriated and a vicarage ordained in about 1277.
The dedication of the church to Saint Esprit, the French title for the Holy Spirit, is particularly interesting, and is believed to be unique in England. It seems probable that the church was dedicated to Saint Esprit following its rebuilding in the thirteenth century, although no evidence has been found to confirm this. However, the church was gifted to the Nuns of Nuneaton by the Earl of Warwick shortly after Robert Beaumont, Earl of Leicester had granted his manor of Eaton, in 1155, to the French Abbey of Fontevraud. The French Abbey had been founded in 1100 by Robert d’Arbrissel, near Chinon, in Anjou. In its early years, the Norman Kings and their descendents were great benefactors of the abbey. Around 1150 the abbess of Fontevraud was Matilda of Anjou, widow of William, the eldest son of Henry I of England. Henry II’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine became a nun there, and Richard I is buried there. With this royal patronage, it is perhaps not surprising that several “Fontevrist” abbeys were set up in England. Also, in the same era that the church in Marton was being rebuilt, Pope Innocent III confirmed, in 1195, the Order of the Holy Spirit, to care for the sick, and encouraged its spread throughout all the countries of Christendom. It is conceivable that the combined politics of church and state led to the unusual dedication of Marton church early in the life of St Mary’s Priory. At that time it would have been natural to use the French form of the Holy Spirit, Saint Esprit, as the hierarchy of the Priory would probably have been of French origin. Small bequests are documented in the 13th century to the lights of the Holy Spirit and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which seem to support this timing. As well as the church, the Nuneaton Priory had substantial holdings around Marton, and local tradition has it that these included a “convalescent” or respite home for the Nuns of Nuneaton. The discovery, in 1959, of some medieval female skeletons near the church, in North Street, has added to this speculation."
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