When Rigby hatched a scheme to turn Mistley into a fashionable spa this plain, rectangular brick building was not in keeping with his grand plans.

Rigby originally called in Robert Adam to design a saltwater bath by the river, but this plan was never carried out and instead the architect was put to work on the church in around 1776.

Adam's scheme was unusual in that it avoided the standard form of 18th-century parish church design, which consisted typically of a rectangle with a western tower or portico (or both) and perhaps an eastern chancel.

Instead, by adding towers at the east and west ends and semi-circular porticoes on the north and south sides, Adam created a design that was symmetrical along both the long and short axes.

When the young French aristocrat Francois de La Rochefoucauld visited Mistley in 1784, he remarked[7] on the trade of the port which he said was 'created entirely by Mr Rigby'.

His tutor and companion, Maximilien de Lazowski, was more precise in his comments,[8] saying that 'Newcastle ships bring coal which is either distributed by cart into Essex or Suffolk or carried on upriver by barge to Sudbury.

[11][12] After locals raised £35,000 to pay for legal advice, a public enquiry was held, and Essex County Council ruled that the quay constituted a "village green".

[16][17] In November 2014[update], a High Court judge sided with the council, meaning that the planning permission for the demolition stood, and new homes could be built on the site.