The church is, along with Canterbury Cathedral and St Augustine's Abbey, part of a World Heritage Site.

St Martin's was the private chapel of Queen Bertha of Kent (died in or after 601) before Saint Augustine of Canterbury arrived from Rome in 597.

Her pagan husband, Æthelberht of Kent, allowed her to continue to practise her religion by renovating a Romano-British building (ca.

Bede specifically names it as being dedicated to Martin of Tours, a city located near where Bertha grew up.

[1] The churchyard contains the graves of many notable local families and well-known people including: Henry Alford, churchman and theologian; Canon William Cadman, a 19th-century evangelist;[8] Thomas Sidney Cooper (artist) and Mary Tourtel, the creator of Rupert Bear.