Churches in Colchester
Excavations in the 1980s for a new police station near the Maldon Road roundabout unearthed 371 Roman graves and a long narrow building.
The building was divided by a wooden screen and two rows of posts ran down the eastern half forming aisles.
The building has been interpreted on strong circumstantial evidence as an early Christian church.
Excavations in 1981 and 1984 in Maidenburgh Street, have shown that the Roman stone and brickwork under the north and east walls were part of a theatre.
[3] In the 14th century, chantries were established in the chapel, but it was closed in 1539 after the Dissolution of St John's Abbey and it went into secular use.
[7] Originally built on part of St John's Abbey cemetery around AD 1150, contains work from every century since.
The churchyard includes the graves of William Gilberd, discoverer of electromagnetism and physician to Elizabeth I, and the composer John Wilbye.
The radical priest John Ball, a leader of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 preached at the church.
On Church Street, to the east of Balkerne Hill is St Mary-at-the-Walls, built against the Roman walls and overlooking the western suburbs of the city.
The theory that the tower gave rise to the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty is now probably disproved.
[15] The old church was made redundant; the bell was moved to St Leonard's in Lexden and the organ to Brentwood Cathedral.
[19] The Colchester Co-operative Society built a department store ("St Nicholas House") on the site.
The church in Colchester formerly stood as part of "middle row" in the High Street.
The church graveyard is in West Stockwell Street, behind Colchester Town Hall.
In origin a Medieval church, St Peter's is on North Hill and largely consists of later Georgian material due to a major remodelling in 1758, but the building retains mediaeval fabric and underwent a further remodelling in 1895–96.
[19][20] During the Medieval period the church yard contained a large stone cross from which gospels were read during the Palm Sunday procession.
St Leonard's-at-the-Hythe is a large medieval church at Colchester's Hythe river port.
[21] Along with St John's Abbey it was one of the two ecclesiastical buildings in Colchester which contained clocks.
[13] The church was the site of a battle during the 1648 Siege of Colchester, and its south door still contains firing loops for muskets.
Joseph Herrick, who was expelled from his previous meeting house in St Helen's Lane by the Unitarians in the congregation.
Designed in a revival of Decorated Gothic by D. R. French, the red-brick church has a tower with a slated spire.
Built in Military Road in 1855 to hold services for soldiers going to the Crimean War, this large Grade II* listed timber church has space for a congregation of 500.
[10] [30] The Church of St John the Evangelist Colchester was built in 1863 by Arthur Blomfield in the Decorated style.
Following continuing growth in church membership, St Luke's was planted, meeting weekly in the community centre on Highwoods.
In Maidenburgh Street next to Colchester Castle, this 20th-century building was opened in 1970 on the site of the "great round meeting house" where John Wesley preached in the 18th century.
The sanctuary was extended two metres in length, a new school room, and a new entrance porch were added.
[24] A temporary tabernacle was built in Fairfax Road in 1931 and served until 1957, when the congregation moved to the former Strict Baptist Chapel in Stanwell Street (see above).
