Church of St Peter and St Paul is a Grade II listed building in the Colchester local planning authority area, England. First listed on 27 January 1982. Church.
Church of St Peter and St Paul
- WRENN ID
- muffled-vault-tide
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Colchester
- Constituency
- Harwich and North Essex MP: Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 27 January 1982
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Peter and St Paul, Vinesse Road, Little Horkesley
- OS grid reference
- TL 960 319
- Coordinates
- 51.95157, 0.85174
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a mid-20th century building located on the site of an ancient church that was destroyed by enemy action on September 21, 1940. The architects for this church were Duncan Clark RIBA and the late Marshall Sissons.
The church features a west tower that is divided into three stages, with a polygonal stair turret at the north-east corner. The tower has rectangular windows, with double windows at the top stage, and each stage is accented by a chamfered string course. The parapet of the tower is embattled. The nave includes a south aisle and a north transept, with low-pitched roofs that are either felted or metalled. The walls of the church are rendered.
The south aisle is supported by three buttresses and has a chamfered string course above the footings, which incorporate ancient stones. The south wall contains three windows, each featuring three perpendicular lancets and topped with square hood moulds. The chancel has a pair of similar windows above a flat-topped extension to the south.
A red brick south porch with a crow-stepped gable and a round-arched entrance leads into the church. Inside, there is a plain chamfered arcade supported by two thin tower piers and one returned pier. The church furniture is made of modern oak.
Notable interior features include effigies from the mid-13th century of two knights clad in mail and surcoats, depicted as Crusaders with their feet on dogs and legs crossed, measuring seven and a half feet tall. These knights are members of the de Horkesley family. There is also a tomb for John Swynborne located near the knights, to the east, made of Purbeck marble and bearing brasses of two plate-armoured knights in prayerful poses, inscribed with the date 1430. The church is included for its group value.
Local climate
Church of St Peter and St Paul sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 97% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 62% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 23 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 76% of listed buildings. Of these, 12 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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