Description

584/15/72 FOREST ROAD
24-FEB-50 CHURCH OF ST ANDREW

(Formerly listed as:
GREENSTEAD CHASE
CHURCH OF ST ANDREW)

II
DATES OF MAIN PHASES:
C12 - C15, late C16 tower, restored 1857, 1884.

MATERIALS:
Mixed rubble, with red brick for the tower. Tiled and slated roofs.

PLAN:
Undivided nave and chancel with W tower, N porch and S aisle the full length of the building.

EXTERIOR:
The red brick, late C16, W tower is of 3 stages and has dark diaper patterning in the brickwork. There is a Georgian Y-tracery W window. It has some reused moulded stones in the jambs and is set within a moulded C16 brick frame for a shorter window. The upper stages have windows with brick mullions and uncusped lights under segmental heads. The embattled parapet has been rebuilt.

The nave and chancel are structurally undivided. The S wall was rebuilt in the C19 and is faced in crazy-paving pattern rubble masonry. It has offset buttresses, three pairs of C13-style lancets and a C13-style door with a pointed head and continuously chamfered opening. The E wall is roughcast and has a Georgian Y-tracery E window.

The N wall is roughcast and has three C19 lancets, each surrounded by a frame of rubble masonry. The NW corner of the nave has C12 quoins partly in Roman brick, with later brick repairs. The C19 N porch is in an Early English style and has an outer doorway with a roll moulding on nook shafts. The N door is plastered and has plain jambs and a round head. It has an C18 door.

INTERIOR:
The interior is plastered and painted. There is no chancel arch or other internal division between nave and chancel. The tower arch has a plain outer order and a chamfered inner arch on C19 corbels. It is plastered except for the corbels. The nave and chancel are ceiled as one and have a plastered barrel vault covering a trussed rafter roof.

The C19, 5-bay S arcade stretches the length of the nave and chancel and has chamfered arches on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The W bay of the aisle is closed off by a late C20 Y-tracery screen to create a social space with children¿s room above. At the far W end of the aisle is an upper space with blind arcading on the front and staircase. The aisle has an exposed C19 roof with arched braces.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES:
Restored, trefoiled C13 or C14 piscina in chancel E wall, S side with an uncusped niche on the north side of the altar. Plain, probably C14 altar recess in chancel N wall. There are also three C16 recesses in the N, S and W walls of the tower. C18 royal arms. Late C18 tablets with the Commandments and the Lord¿s prayer in an arched wooden frame at the W end of the nave, and C19 commandment and creed tablets in pinnacled and crocket frames on the nave N wall. Octagonal C19 font in a C15 style with blind tracery panelling. Polygonal C19 wineglass pulpit.

HISTORY
The medieval church consisted only of the nave and chancel, and was probably C12 in origin, as the W part of the N wall of the nave is C12 and until the C19, it also had two C12 windows in the chancel S wall. There was a C13 lancet and apparently a C14 E window with reticulated tracery. Two C14 recesses and a plain medieval tomb recess survive inside, indicating a remodelling of the chancel at this time. The tower was added in the late C16, and there was further work in the C18 when dormers removed in the C19 were added to the nave, buttresses were added and other repairs were carried out including refacing and rendering the N and E walls of the chancel. The church was restored and partially rebuilt by G Sargent in 1857, who added the S aisle. There was further restoration in 1884 after the Colchester earthquake to designs by E J Dampier, and again in 1971. The W end of the S aisle was closed off with a screen to designs by Tim Venn in 1995-6.

There was a church at Greenstead before the Norman Conquest, although the present building was apparently not built until the C12. The rebuilding in 1856 was largely at the expense of Thomas Philip de Grey, Earl de Grey, who was lord of the local manor and J G Rebow, MP. The parish was reorganised several times in the C19 and C20 as Greenstead became part of suburban Colchester. The church now stands in the middle of a large C20 housing development.

SOURCES
Bettley, J. and Pevsner, N., Buildings of England: Essex (2007), 224
VCH Essex IX (1994), 382-90
RCHME Essex III (1922) 46-47

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The church of St Andrew, Greenstead, Colchester should be designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* C12 church with a late C16 brick tower, much rebuilt and extended in the C19 and reordered in the late C20.
* Preserves some Georgian windows at E and W ends.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26461902

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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