Facilities and features
Accessibility
There are two toilets in the church. One is a disabled toilet that also has baby changing facilities.
Baby changing facilities are in the right-hand of the two toilets in church.
Parking is at the Church Centre across the road from the church. At the junction between Church Street South, Church Place and Maddever Crescent, go through the gap in the wall facing you as you come down Church Street South. There is parking at the entrance level and down the left hand side of the Church Centre. There is also more car parking in the lower car park, accessed via the drive to the right of the Church Centre.
The disabled toilet is the right-hand of the two toilets in church.
Defibrillator is located on the front outside wall of the Church Centre across the road from the church.
There is a ramp to the lychgate at the north of the church, but there remains a low lip to get over at the lychgate before the path up to the north door of the church.
Our Building
St Martin's Church, Liskeard is the second largest church building in Cornwall and includes many stained glass windows.
The church is open Monday to Thursday, unless there is an event going on, typically from 09:30 to 15:00.
St Martin's Church is a grade II* medieval listed church. The separate Church Centre was built as an National Board school and the main (upper) hall is grade II.
St Martin's Church has been awarded silver Eco church.
Music and Worship
The church has an eight bell ring, and our ringers ring between the 09:15 and 11:00 services on Sundays.
Whilst not a full programme of events at all, the church is used for concerts and other activities on occasion.
The organ is a fine Lewis pipe organ, and was completely refurbished in 2019.
Our choir and organist lead sung worship at the 09:15 service. The choir also usually perform an anthem during the service.
The 11:00 and 19:00 Sunday services are led by our worship team. Musicians include vocals; keyboard; electric, acoustic and base guitars; drums and saxophone. Typically there will be four or five musicians leading the 11:00 service, and two or three leading the 19:00 service.
Groups, Courses and Activities
The youth group meets in the dedicated youth area ("the Cellars")
The Blaze supper club meets in the upper church hall from 15:15 to 17:00. All families are welcome to join us for food, friendship and fun (children must be accompanied by an adult). Food will be provided each week (such as wraps, soup, pasta etc). The hall will be set up with table top games and toys, craft and a reading corner.
The church usually runs an Alpha course two or three times a year.
The church has a number of "life groups" that meet in church members' home during the week, with roughly 100 members attending.
The church runs a CAP debt hub, which covers the whole of Southeast Cornwall (Liskeard, Looe, Callington, Saltash and Torpoint plus the surrounding villages)
We run regular CAP money courses during the year.
Over the years we have run a number of discipleship courses, including the Bible Course, Prayer Course and the Romans course.
The church has a large staff team and is a "Transforming Mission" church, receiving funding from the Church Commissioners and Truro Diocese to grow the church and help other churches across Southeast Cornwall to grow.
We run a holiday club during the summer holidays
We have two support groups (Soar for men, and Soar for women), and many of those attending have addiction issues and / or mental health issues. Some of our staff are trained as mental health first aiders.
The church provides early stage intervention mentoring for children in the primary and secondary schools through TLG (Transforming Lives for Good)
The church provides parenting courses through Kids Matter
We have two ABC (Adults Babies and Children) toddler groups, meeting on Tuesday morning and Tuesday lunchtime. The Soar for Women's group meets between the two ABC groups, using the ABC toys and activities, and church volunteers, to provide creche facilities for the children of those attending.
We have a dedicated youth club area ("the Cellars") and run a range of youth activities
Help for Visitors
The church is open Monday to Thursday, unless there is an event going on, typically from 09:30 to 15:00.
Other Features
St Martin's has modern AV equipment, with an extensive sound deck, and an in-house projection system (with the projected images mirrored on large TVs via Wi-Fi. Sunday services are also streamed using two cameras, each with six pre-set positions, which can be varied for each service.
The church sits within the conservation area, and the Church Centre is right on the boundary.
In the upper hall we have the main large hall and two smaller meeting rooms for hire. The lower hall has a large room and another smaller meeting room.
The church has an ACTS 435 advocate and receives requests to help individuals from our own church family, social services and medical practices.