Before World War I there was a plan by the local landowners, the Bulwer-Lytton family, to develop Knebworth as a type of garden village.

This plan was only partly realised, but it resulted in several commissions for Lutyens including a clubhouse for the local golf course and Homewood, a dower house for his mother-in-law, Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Countess of Lytton.

When the church was consecrated in 1915, it was in an incomplete state because of cutbacks caused by World War I.

Richardson did not follow Lutyens' intention to give the church a portico, but his contribution has been described as "harmonious".

[3] Media related to St Martin's Church, Knebworth at Wikimedia Commons