St Martin's Church is over 900 years old and the only public building in the little parish of Dunton in Buckinghamshire.

There are only 80 people in the parish and as such we struggle to do enough to maintain this lovely historic church. Fund-raising is ongoing but simply cannot keep pace with the maintenance and repairs required let alone any improvements.

Irrespective of our varying religious beliefs - everyone who sees the church agrees it's worth saving but it needs more help than the local parishioners can give.

St. Martin’s church is the village’s oldest surviving building, providing an important link with the past in a rural farming area which – as villagers who have been here for decades either move away or die – is slowly losing its living connections with history.

The church is a living history book:
For example, there is a font which may have been used to baptise generations of villagers since the 12th century. Its relatively uncommon box pews characterise the elegance of Georgian church design. The still functional West Gallery – also relatively rare – is a reminder of the earlier, poorer days of the village when – in the absence of an organ – it would have housed a small band of musicians to accompany the singing at services. And yet, the same gallery has Greek inscriptions: the clergy were much better educated than their parishioners in those days. The church has no stained glass, but does have in its archives a design for the East window, from the studios of William Morris (perhaps by Morris himself?) to commemorate a Vicar who went on from this small rural church and parish to become Bishop of London.

Although this is a small county church, the chancel has one thing in common with Westminster Hall, Eltham Palace, Hampton Court, the Old King’s Head in Aylesbury, and a handful of other buildings. It has remnants of one of the only 12 surviving hammerbeam roofs in the country from this period. http://schorneteam.co.uk/dunton/