Church of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Greenstead

This is a medieval church consisting of an undivided nave and chancel, originally built in the 12th century, with a late 16th-century tower added to the west, a north porch, and a south aisle running the full length of the building. The structure has been substantially restored and rebuilt, particularly in the 19th century.

The west tower is constructed in red brick with dark diaper patterning and rises three stages. It dates to the late 16th century. A Georgian Y-tracery window occupies the west face, set within a moulded 16th-century brick frame for a shorter window. The upper stages contain windows with brick mullions and uncusped lights beneath segmental heads. The embattled parapet has been rebuilt.

The nave and chancel remain structurally undivided. The south wall was rebuilt in the 19th century and is faced in crazy-paving pattern rubble masonry with offset buttresses. It features three pairs of 13th-century style lancets and a 13th-century style door with a pointed head and continuously chamfered opening. The east wall is roughcast and contains a Georgian Y-tracery window. The north wall is roughcast with three 19th-century lancets, each surrounded by a frame of rubble masonry. The northwest corner of the nave retains 12th-century quoins partly constructed in Roman brick, with later brick repairs. The 19th-century north porch is in an Early English style with an outer doorway featuring roll moulding on nook shafts. The north door is plastered with plain jambs and a round head, and contains an 18th-century door.

The interior is plastered and painted throughout. There is no chancel arch or internal division between nave and chancel. The tower arch has a plain outer order and a chamfered inner arch on 19th-century corbels, plastered except for the corbels themselves. The nave and chancel are ceiled as one space, covered by a plastered barrel vault over a trussed rafter roof.

The south arcade, dating to the 19th century, stretches the full length in five bays with chamfered arches on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The western bay of the aisle is closed off by a late 20th-century Y-tracery screen creating a social space with a children's room above. At the far west end of the aisle is an upper space with blind arcading and a staircase. The aisle roof is exposed, in 19th-century style with arched braces.

Principal fixtures include a restored, trefoiled 13th- or 14th-century piscina in the chancel east wall, south side, with an uncusped niche on the north side of the altar. A plain, probably 14th-century altar recess survives in the chancel north wall. Three 16th-century recesses occupy the north, south and west walls of the tower. An 18th-century royal arms is displayed, alongside late 18th-century tablets bearing the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer in an arched wooden frame at the west end of the nave. The nave north wall carries 19th-century commandment and creed tablets in pinnacled and crocket frames. An octagonal 19th-century font displays 15th-century style blind tracery panelling. A polygonal 19th-century wineglass pulpit completes the principal fittings.

The medieval church originally comprised only the nave and chancel, probably dating from the 12th century; the west portion of the north wall remains from this period. Until the 19th century, two 12th-century windows also survived in the chancel south wall. A 13th-century lancet was present, along with what appears to have been a 14th-century east window with reticulated tracery. Two 14th-century recesses and a plain medieval tomb recess survive inside, indicating a remodelling of the chancel at that period. The tower was added in the late 16th century. During the 18th century, dormers (later removed in the 19th century) were added to the nave, buttresses were inserted, and repairs were carried out including refacing and rendering of the north and east walls of the chancel. In 1857, the church was restored and partially rebuilt by G Sargent, who added the south aisle. A further restoration followed in 1884 after the Colchester earthquake, designed by E J Dampier. Another restoration took place in 1971. The west end of the south aisle was enclosed with a screen designed by Tim Venn in 1995–96.

A church stood at Greenstead before the Norman Conquest, though the present building was apparently not constructed until the 12th century. The major rebuilding of 1856 was substantially funded by Thomas Philip de Grey, Earl de Grey, lord of the local manor, and J G Rebow, Member of Parliament. The parish underwent several reorganisations during the 19th and 20th centuries as Greenstead became incorporated into suburban Colchester. The church now stands within a large 20th-century housing development.