St Martin in the Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Dedicated in honour of Saint Martin of Tours, there has been a church on the site since at least the medieval period. This location, at that time, was farmlands and fields beyond the London wall. St Martin's became a principal parish church west of the old City in the early modern period as Westminster's population grew.
But it has another, forgotten story to tell. At 1.6 kilometres (or 1 statute mile) west-south-west of Ludgate, it is far from the usual city limits of Roman London. Excavations in 2006 uncovered a group of burials dating from around 350 AD, including a sarcophagus burial from 410 AD. These burials remain a mystery; some speculate that they mark a Christian centre from that time or a reutilized pagan temple, while others suggest they may have developed around the shrine of a buried martyr.
The site was acknowledged by the Saxons, who continued to bury their dead there. It is likely that the Saxon town of Lundenwic grew eastwards from this burial group. Today, visitors to St Martin in the Fields might only see a typical Anglican church. But beneath its facade lies a history that has been largely forgotten.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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