St Mary & St Martin, Blyth
St Mary and St Martin, Blyth
The Priory Church of St Mary and St Martin on Sheffield Road, Blyth, Nottinghamshire, is a Grade I former Benedictine priory church founded in 1088, now the parish church of Blyth in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham.
- Location
- Blyth, Nottinghamshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Nottinghamshire
- City / town
- Blyth
- Address
- Sheffield Road, Blyth, Nottinghamshire, S81 8HL
- Postcode
- S81 8HL
- Built
- Founded 1088; late C11 nave; C13–C15 additions; east end demolished after the Dissolution; restored 1885
- Architect
- C. Hodgson Fowler (1885 restoration)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Mary and Martin
- Diocese
- Southwell and Nottingham
- Parish
- Blyth
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Norman, with later medieval work
- Materials
- Ashlar and brick with lead roofs
- Grid reference
- SK 624 872
- Opening hours
- Usually open through February 12pm to 4pm in conjunction with Hodsock Priory snowdrop festival.
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas
Overview
Roger de Busli founded a Benedictine priory here in 1088. Historic England records a late-eleventh-century priory church with thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth-century work, of ashlar and brick with lead roofs: west tower, nave, aisles with tribunes and clerestories, and south porch. The crossing, transepts and apsidal east end were blocked in the fifteenth century and demolished after the Dissolution; a fifteenth-century west tower was then completed. C. Hodgson Fowler restored the church in 1885; the bell chamber was restored in 1929–30. A fifteenth-century Doom painting on the east wall of the nave was uncovered in 1885. Listed Grade I on 30 November 1966 (NHLE 1239182); listing NGR SK6240287286. The priory site is also a scheduled monument.