All Saints All Saints’ Church is a twelfth-century church located in Colchester High Street. In 1953 it was declared a
redundant church. The building is now the home of the Natural History Museum, Colchester. It is situated opposite
Colchester Castle at
MapRef TL 999252. The church has a fine flint-built tower of the 15th century. However the rest of the building was extensively rebuilt in the mid 19th century.
St Botolph's Priory The
Augustinian priory of
St Botolph, generally called "St Botolph's Priory", was also established in the 11th century. This adopted the Augustinian Order in around 1200 and became the mother church of the order in Britain. At the
Dissolution of the Monasteries the priory church of St Botolph became the parish church. It was also used by the Corporation on civic occasions until the
English Civil War. In 1650 the church was described as burnt and ruined after the
Siege of Colchester, and it has been left in ruins. Until the construction of
a new church in 1837, parishioners attended All Saints’ Church instead, although burials continued in the churchyard.
St Giles, St John's Green Originally built on part of St John's Abbey cemetery around AD 1150, contains work from every century since. It was declared redundant in 1956 and then used as a
St. John Ambulance depot until 1975 when it was converted into a
masonic centre.
Holy Trinity Holy Trinity is the oldest surviving church building in Colchester. It is on Trinity Street in the city centre. Parts of the church tower are
Anglo-Saxon, believed to date from about 1020. The Saxon doorway in the west side of the tower has a triangular head: dating from the 12th century. The nave, tower, and two aisles were built between the 13th and 15th centuries.
St John's Abbey The
Benedictine abbey of St
John the Baptist, generally known as "St John's Abbey," founded in 1096, had a late 11th-century
church until the
Dissolution of the Monasteries and the execution of its
abbot in 1539. Now all that remains is the gatehouse on St John's Green, which dates from the 15th century, The church is on West Stockwell Street in the old Dutch Quarter. Its tower was damaged in the
English Civil War and was never repaired. Today the church building is in the care of The
Churches Conservation Trust and is used as a community venue. The key is available from the
Colchester Borough Council museum service.
St Mary-at-the-Walls 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. First recorded in 1206, the church has a notable history. It is the site where 23
Protestant martyrs were
executed by burning in the reign of the
Mary I. In the
English Civil War a
Royalist army used the church tower as a gun emplacement, which resulted in its destruction by
New Model Army siege batteries. The theory that the tower gave rise to the nursery rhyme
Humpty Dumpty is now probably
disproved. The lower part of the tower is Norman; the upper parts were rebuilt in 1729 and the top in 1911. There was a further major rebuild in 1872. In 1978 the parish was united with Christ Church in a new building in Ireton Road. In 1980 the building was reopened as Colchester Arts Centre.
St Nicholas Saint Nicholas' church formerly stood on the High Street. The original church was 12th century and the church was rebuilt in the 14th century, and
restored again between 1875 and 1876 to designs by Sir
George Gilbert Scott. The church had the highest
spire in Colchester. During the medieval period the church yard contained a large stone cross from which gospels were read during the
Palm Sunday procession. The churchyard also contained a large marker stone on its northern side into the 1500s. Along with St John's Abbey it was one of the two ecclesiastical buildings in Colchester which contained clocks. The church is now redundant, and is cared for by the
Churches Conservation Trust. ==Georgian churches==