St Martin's was the private chapel of Queen Bertha of Kent in the 6th Century before Augustine arrived from Rome. Queen Bertha was a Christian when she arrived in England with her Chaplain, Bishop Liudhard, and King Ethelbert, her husband, allowed her to continue to practise her religion in an existing church which the Venerable Bede says had been in use in the late Roman period but fallen into disuse. There is a strong possibility that this church is St Martin's, especially since Bede names it. Local finds prove that Christianity did exist in this area of the city at the time, and the church contains many reused Roman bricks or spolia, as well as complete sections of walls of Roman tiles. However, its design is not specifically Roman and as such may have been built just after the Roman occupation and at the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon migration in the mid 4th century.

The churchyard contains the graves of many notable local families and well-known people including Thomas Sidney Cooper, RA (artist) and Mary Tourtel, the creator of Rupert Bear.

The Church has a strong continuing musical tradition from the monks of St Augustine to the present day. The first Sunday of every month is usually a Renaissance mass setting and is sung by a quartet of singers, the current Director of Music is Peter Litman.

External links

• Canterbury Buildings
• Web site of St Martin's Church

Sources

• F. Haverfield, "Early British Christianity" The English Historical Review Vol. 11, No. 43. (Jul., 1896)