Church Of St Thomas

Church of St Thomas

This parish church at Bradwell-on-Sea combines work from several periods. The chancel and south porch date to the 14th century, while the nave was rebuilt and the west tower added around 1706. The 19th century saw the addition of a north organ chamber, partial rebuilding of the chancel, and various restorations including work by Chancellor in 1864.

The chancel and organ chamber walls are built of flint, rubble and septaria with a stone eaves cornice. The nave walls are of brick and stone, whilst the tower is of red brick. Limestone dressings are used throughout, and the roofs are of red plain tiles in two levels.

The chancel has an east wall with angle buttresses and 19th-century 5-light windows with tracery; the two centre lights have arched heads. A roundel with trefoil ornament sits at the gable apex, topped with a cross finial. The south and north walls each have windows: the south wall has two 2-light windows with tracery and arched heads, separated by a buttress, whilst the north wall has one similar window.

The north organ chamber is a lean-to structure with a Caernarvon-headed doorway on the east wall and a 2-light window with trefoiled head. The nave's east wall displays a 16th-century corbel frieze of moulded brick trefoils set high up. The north wall has five 2-light trefoil windows with tracery over and arched centre lights, and the south wall has four similar windows with angle buttresses. Ten carved stone faces are positioned over the windows.

The south doorway has a moulded 2-centre arched head with foliate capitals and moulded bases to the shafts, flanked by vertically boarded double doors. The south porch consists of two bays with 3-light windows, moulded and cambered tie beams with moulded arched braces to the centre beam, and collars to each rafter pair. The entrance features an ogee arch with sidelights. Three niches occupy the gable apex, with the front returns each containing 3 cusped and traceried lights with moulded mullions and posts, and three rear lights that are plain. The porch is dated 1706.

The west tower is of red brick and crenellated, rising in three stages with angled buttresses to the western angles and a band that runs through the third stage. The north and south faces have 2 leaded and cross-transomed round-headed windows, and similar sounding louvres appear on all faces of the belfry. The west doorway, dating to the 19th or 20th century, has a 2-centre arched head with shafts bearing moulded capitals and eroded bases, with dog-tooth moulding above and double vertically boarded doors. A small doorway with a segmental head pierces the south wall, with a clock positioned above the second window and a small niche to its right. A weathervane crowns the apex. A plaque beside the west door records the building of the steeple.

The interior chancel has a roof of four bays in side purlin queen strut construction with braces to the purlins. The 1925 stained glass east window is notable, as is the carved wooden sedilia of 1904 featuring corn, vine and lily motifs. Wall brasses on the north wall commemorate Margaret Wyott (1526), an early 16th-century shield of arms showing three owls and a sinister quarter impaling four bars on a bend of three scallops, Thomas Debanke (1606) with inscription, and Johannes Debanke (1601).

The chancel arch is 14th-century, with a 2-centred form of two moulded orders and three attached moulded shafts.

The nave roof is 18th-century, of seven bays with double side purlins, raking struts, and plain tie beams with king posts, mortised to hold ceiling joists (now lost). A 14th-century octagonal font with moulded soffit stands here; four carved faces ornament the bases of alternate angles, with a round stem and chamfered base. A 19th-century stone pulpit with green marble shafts to the angles features cruciform and dog-tooth decoration with red marble panels. Most windows contain 19th and 20th-century stained glass. A west gallery of two bays, now glazed in, stands above the central doors, where a royal hatchment is displayed.