Church Of St James And St Paul

Church of St James and St Paul, East Hill, Colchester

This is the largest church in Colchester, standing prominently on a hill as an important local landmark. It is a multi-phase medieval building dating from the 13th to 15th centuries, with evidence of earlier origins possibly going back to the 12th century or earlier. The church was heavily restored and partially rebuilt in 1870-71 by the architect Samuel Sanders Teulon.

The building is constructed of flint and septaria rubble, partly faced with knapped flint, with some Roman brick in the tower and stone dressings throughout. Roofs are tiled and leaded. The plan comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a north porch, and a west tower. The chancel has north and south chapels with a north vestry.

The early 16th-century chancel is faced externally with knapped flints and features a moulded plinth and buttresses with flush flintwork. A large Perpendicular east window was partially blocked in the post-medieval period and heavily restored in the 19th century. Both the north chapel and north vestry have parapets ornamented with quatrefoil diapering embellished with carved flowers. The north vestry, which is much lower than the north chapel, sits below a window. The nave and aisles have plain parapets. The nave clerestory was rebuilt in Perpendicular style in the 19th century, as were the north aisle and north porch. The south door is also 19th century in 15th-century style, and the south aisle has heavily restored 15th-century windows. A partial 14th-century string course below the eastern windows of the south aisle is probably the remains of the south wall of a former south transept or shorter aisle.

The west tower is embattled with brick quoins. The second stage has restored 13th-century windows of a single pointed light, with restored 14th-century two-light windows in the upper bell stage. There is a southeast stair turret. The small shingled spire was added in the 19th century, replacing an earlier, probably 18th-century lantern.

The interior is painted and plastered with exposed timber roofs. The early 15th-century chancel arch is very tall and wide and has a rood beam with figures. The tall two-bay chancel north and south arcades have moulded outer arches and inner arches on attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases, forming a lozenge shape. A further arch on each side at the east end has a window. Below the north window is an Easter sepulchre, and there is a sedilia in the dropped sill of the south window. The roofs of the north and south chancel chapels are 16th-century with curved braces. That on the north has probably 17th or early 18th-century repairs with the arms of the See of London. That on the south displays the symbols of the Evangelists.

The tall, narrow tower arch has continuous mouldings and was entirely rebuilt in the 19th century. The arches from the aisles into the chancel chapels are 13th-century material reset in the 15th century, and may indicate the presence of former transepts that preceded the present aisles and chapels. The nave north and south arcades are of four bays and several periods. The two eastern bays on the south date from the late 13th or early 14th century, followed by matching bays on the north of the early 14th century, then the western two bays on the south of the early 15th century and corresponding bays on the north of the later 15th century. The earlier parts of the arcade were also partly remodelled in the 15th century. The Roman brick northwest corner of the earlier unaisled nave is visible in the north aisle. The tower stair turret is accessed via a door at the west end of the south aisle. The nave and aisle roofs were rebuilt in the 19th century, but the north aisle roof has reused 15th-century brackets.

Principal fixtures include a chancel piscina, a 16th-century piscina in the north chapel and a 14th-century piscina in the south chapel. The chancel, south chapel and south aisle have sedilia formed by dropping the sills of windows. There is a statue bracket in the south chapel with a supporting angel. The south chapel screen (1899-1900) was designed by T J Jackson in a delicate Art and Crafts Perpendicular style. An oak pulpit by H and K Mabbit dates to 1951. Glass of 1843 by Warrington is in the south chapel.

Monuments include brasses to John Maynarde (died 1569) and his wife Alys (died 1584), the latter a palimpsest on an older draped figure. A wall tablet commemorates Thomas Reynolds (died 1665) and his wife Margery (died 1649). A large standing wall monument to Arthur Winsley (died 1727) features a semi-reclining figure in Augustan mode.

The church of St James was first mentioned in the mid 13th century, but architectural evidence suggests it is considerably earlier. In the 13th century it was held briefly by Coggeshall Priory and later by St Botolph's before passing to the Audley family after the Dissolution. The northwest corner of the long nave survives with Roman brick, suggesting a 12th-century or earlier origin. The long nave and possible transepts hint at the presence of a pre-Conquest structure below the present building, though this cannot be confirmed. The tower was added in the 13th century, and also in the 13th century the eastern bays of the south arcade were built. The arches into the chancel chapels reuse 13th-century material, perhaps from former transepts. The eastern part of the north aisle was built in the early 14th century and both aisles were reworked and extended in the 15th century. Anchorites were associated with the church in the 12th and 13th centuries, and in the later Middle Ages it had an active parish life with several guilds that had altars within the church.

The chancel was rebuilt in the early 16th century, and its chapels and vestry are contemporary. Little is known of work carried out on the church in the post-medieval period, but the tower was noted as decayed in 1633 and the small lantern shown on it in early prints may have been 17th or 18th-century. The advowson was in the hands of the Bishop of London in the early 18th century, which may provide a date for the repairs to the north chapel roof. The church had fallen into disrepair by the middle of the 19th century and was heavily restored and partially rebuilt in 1870-71 to designs by S S Teulon (1812-73), a well-known church architect who worked primarily for Low Church clients. His work is often striking for its use of structural polychromy and exotic architectural details. From the end of the 19th century the church has been a focus of high church worship in Colchester. Further minor alterations were carried out in the late 19th century and some reordering in the mid 20th century. A new vestry was added on the south by Duncan W Clark in 1953.