St Martin's Church, Walsall

St Martin's was initially a church plant of St Matthew's Church in Walsall, under the leadership of the Reverend Vernon Nicholls, Vicar of St Matthew’s, and later Bishop of the Diocese of Sodor and Man. Prior to the construction of the present church building, the congregation worshipped in the Red House Pub (now the Longhorn).

The church stands on land that once belonged to the family of Mary Stanley, a site that was formerly occupied by the Stanley family home, which was demolished in error instead of the old Three Crowns pub, further up the Sutton Road. The two yew trees that flank the front pathway once stood in the garden.

The church building was consecrated by the Bishop of Lichfield, the Right Reverend Arthur Streetton Reeve, on Saturday 22 October 1960. The building has a distinctive A frame design, and features a large carving of Christ with the children, by Raymond Forbes Kings.[1]

St Martin’s was a daughter church to St Matthew’s, and its ministers were originally curates from St Matthew’s. In 1975 St Martin’s was granted its own incumbent, and in September 1977 St Martin’s became a district church, responsible for its own affairs, with a resident minister living in the newly constructed St Martin’s House.

On 13 December 1987 a Team Ministry was inaugurated, consisting of St Matthew’s, St Martin’s and St Luke’s, with a Team Rector and two Team Vicars. In 2011 the Team Ministry was disbanded, and St Martin's became an independent parish in its own right.

The churchmanship of St Martin's is Open Evangelical.