St Martin of Tours Church, Detling

Detling, United Kingdom

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

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St Martin of Tours Church in Detling, Kent, is a Norman parish church founded in 1101 and substantially expanded over subsequent centuries. The early Norman nave and chancel, constructed of flint with a plain tiled roof, form the building's core, while an Early English aisle of flint and ragstone was added to the north in the 13th century and enlarged again in the 1880s. The north chapel and south porch are Perpendicular Gothic additions from the 15th century. The tower, built in two stages of galletted ragstone with diagonal buttresses, received its timber-shingled broach spire in 1861, designed by R. C. Hussey. The interior is distinguished by a rare early twelve-sided font on a modern base and an ornately carved oak lectern from 1340–50, deemed "the finest medieval fitting in any parish church in the county," possibly salvaged from Boxley Abbey. The church's pipe organ, dating from the 1850s, was relocated from Maidstone's Congregational Church in 1973. Late 19th-century restoration addressed the roof and added a large perpendicular window on the west tower. The building is Grade I listed.