St Martin’s Church, Canterbury: The Oldest Church in the English-Speaking World
6 hours ago
4 min read
Most visitors to Canterbury walk straight to the cathedral, and I understand why. But ten minutes east of the city centre, up a steep lane off Longport, there is a small flint-and-brick church that I would argue matters even more. This is St Martin's, the oldest church in the English-speaking world still in continuous use, and it was here, in the years before 597, that the story of Christian England began.
It is not grand. You could fit it several times over into the nave of the cathedral. But as I said when I filmed there, this tiny church “isn't just old. It's the spark from which English Christianity grew.” Watch the film first, then read on for the history, how to visit and where to stay.
Older than England itself
St Martin's is one of three parts of the Canterbury UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1988 alongside Canterbury Cathedral and the ruins of St Augustine's Abbey. UNESCO's own description calls it the oldest church in England, and notes that it has been in continuous use as a place of worship since the 6th century. The parish itself describes it as the oldest church in the English-speaking world in continuous use.
Think about that for a moment. People were praying in this building before there was a kingdom of England, before the English language had settled into anything we would recognise, and centuries before the Normans arrived. As I put it on camera, “This is older than England. This is a significant place.”
Roman bricks you can still touch
Look closely at the walls and you will see thin red bricks among the flint. They are Roman, reused from a Romano-British building that stood here long before the Anglo-Saxons came. UNESCO notes that the southern wall still retains its Roman fabric. The Romans brought the first wave of Christianity to Britain, and it all but faded when they withdrew in the early 5th century. Here, the bricks stayed.
The building has been altered and extended in the 6th, 7th and 14th centuries, and the tower is later Perpendicular work. Standing at the back of the churchyard you can read it like a book: Roman, Saxon, Norman and medieval repairs, one layer on another.
Queen Bertha, King Æthelberht and Augustine
The human story is what makes the place. In about 580, a Christian Frankish princess, Bertha, came to Kent to marry the pagan King Æthelberht. She brought her chaplain, Bishop Liudhard, and was allowed to keep her faith. According to the Venerable Bede, she worshipped in this building, dedicated to St Martin of Tours, a saint from the part of Gaul where she grew up.
In 597 Augustine arrived, sent from Rome by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the Anglo-Saxons. He did not start from nothing. He used St Martin's as the base for his mission, and Æthelberht was baptised soon after. Land was then granted for the abbey and the cathedral, and from Canterbury the faith spread across the land. If you want the story in the words of the man who first wrote it down, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People is still very readable.
Æthelberht was not English in any modern sense. He was a king of Kent, one of many small realms on these islands. His conversion was a spiritual choice, but it was also a political one, tying his kingdom to the Frankish court his queen came from and to Rome. St Martin's was where those worlds met.
Why it matters to me
The Wondering Englishman has visited over 90 countries so far, and I'm slowly making my way around the world. Very few places I have filmed carry this much weight in so small a space. The rituals, the music, the law and the festivals that shaped England, and through England much of the wider world, trace a line back to this hillside.
In the film I said: “Every layer is a reminder that what we have wasn't given to us freely. It was built, defended, and passed down.” That is my view, and it is why I think places like St Martin's should never be sidelined or forgotten. Once heritage like this is lost, it does not come back.
Outside, the gravestones lean and twist, names weathered almost to nothing. This churchyard has outlasted Viking raids, the Norman Conquest, the Reformation, the Civil War and two world wars, and it is still a working parish church today.
Visiting St Martin's
St Martin's is on North Holmes Road, Canterbury CT1 1PW, roughly a ten-minute walk from the city centre via Longport, passing St Augustine's Abbey on the way. In the low season from 28 September, the parish says the church is usually open to visitors Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 3pm, with a Sunday service at 9am. Groups must book ahead. Check before you go, as it occasionally closes for private events.
Be aware that access is limited for wheelchair users. There are steps up a steep hill and more steps inside the church, with no ramps or lifts.
To see all three World Heritage sites in a day, start at St Martin's in the morning, walk down to St Augustine's Abbey, then finish at the cathedral. A good Canterbury and Kent guidebook helps you tie them together.
For a guided walk through the medieval lanes and Cathedral Precincts, browse Canterbury tours on Viator or Canterbury tours and tickets on GetYourGuide.
Where to stay
Canterbury is compact, so anywhere inside or just outside the city walls puts you within walking distance of all three sites. Use the Canterbury hotels map below (Stay22 Hub, AID thewonderingenglishman) to pick a base.
Plan your trip
Hotels: Booking.com
Apartments: Airbnb
Tours: Viator Canterbury
Tours and tickets: GetYourGuide Canterbury
Flights
Flying into the UK to see Canterbury? London's airports are the obvious gateway, and high-speed trains from London St Pancras reach Canterbury West in under an hour. Compare fares below.
Photo credits: St Martin's Church, Canterbury by Noisar via Geograph and Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 2.0, and Interior of St Martin, Canterbury by Andy Li via Wikimedia Commons under CC0.
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Safe travels, The Wondering Englishman
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