Church Of St Nicholas, Coggeshall Abbey

Church of St Nicholas, Coggeshall Abbey

The gatehouse chapel of Coggeshall Abbey, now serving as a parish church. Built circa 1225, the building was restored in 1863 and again by Bodley and Garner in 1897, with repairs continuing through the 20th century.

The structure is rectangular in plan, constructed as a single build without later additions. It is built of flint rubble incorporating English brick and tiles, with contemporary English brick dressings and a roof of handmade red plain tiles.

The eastern wall contains a brick window of three chamfered lancet lights set within a hollow-chamfered two-centred outer order, with roll-moulded splays and a two-centred rear-arch. The north wall has four chamfered brick lancet windows with similar splays and rear-arches, all slightly restored. The south wall contains four similar windows, though the two eastern windows are reduced in depth for internal features, and the third window is entirely 19th-century work. West of this third window is a south doorway added in 1863. The section of south wall between this doorway and the third window was rebuilt in the 19th century. An engraving of 1818 depicts the building in use as a barn with a wagon entrance and midstrey at this location. The western wall contains a window matching that in the east wall, rebuilt externally in the 20th century but retaining original splays and rear-arch, with much of the upper wall also rebuilt. All quoins have been repaired in the 19th and 20th centuries, though substantial original fabric remains.

Interior features include an aumbry in the north wall (wholly restored in the 19th century) and at the east end of the south wall an original stone credence with a 19th-century sill, an original double piscina of brick with a hollow-chamfered east jamb (now mutilated), and three sedilia with defaced two-centred arches, a hollow-chamfered west jamb, and 19th-century piers between the bays. Original plaster survives on the soffits and backs of the arches, bearing 13th-century painting: red masonry lines on white in the east bay, a fragment of a red cruciform nimbus in the middle bay, and a foliate pattern in brown on white on the soffits of all bays.

A roll-moulded band of brick runs at 1.85 metres above floor level on all internal walls, rising with mitred corners over the credence, piscina, and sedilia. Originally coloured green and glazed, it has been restored in the 19th century. Below the band the rubble is exposed; above it is plastered. Archaeological stripping in 1981 revealed two recesses in the east wall, blocked in the 19th century. At the threshold of the south door is a small area of mosaic paving comprising circular tiles set at the junctions of large square tiles, originally coloured and glazed but now bare.

The roof comprises 23 scissor-braced couples visible internally, with plain couples exposed in the gables. The 10 couples at the east end are substantially original with minor 19th-century repairs and show distinctive construction: scissor braces are connected to the rafters by secret notched lap joints, collars are halved across braces and rafters, and ashlar-pieces are tenoned into the rafters. Two undated framed photographs in the church show the roof formerly thatched, with this east end standing approximately 0.40 metre higher than the remainder at the apex and topped by a small plastered gable. An illustration of 1639 shows the roof tiled without the midstrey. The south part of the roof has been completely rebuilt in the 19th or 20th century, retaining some original components.

The brickwork is notable as among the finest Early English brickwork in England. The bricks are similar to those of Coxyde Abbey in Belgium (1214) but were produced locally at Tilkey. This building ranks in importance with Bradwell-juxta-Coggeshall as a significant example of early English brick construction.