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St Martin, Colchester

The centre of medieval Colchester had eight parish churches, of which six survive (St Runwald came down in 1878, St Nicholas, rebuilt by George Gilbert Scott in 1876, was demolished as recently as 1955). By comparison with towns elsewhere in East Anglia, the centre of Cambridge has nine surviving medieval parish churches, Ipswich has twelve and Norwich a remarkable twenty-nine. But all are larger towns than Colchester. Colchester's buildings have, of course, had to contend with a livelier history than those of the other three places. The Civil War siege of 1648 caused significant damage, as did the earthquake of 22nd April 1884. The earthquake would have caused more damage to the medieval churches if it had not been for fairly considerable recent restorations. As it was, the rural churches just outside the town took the brunt. St Martin sits on West Stockwell Street in the Dutch Quarter of Colchester. St Runwald was directly across the road, and a small portion of its graveyard survives. St Martin is dramatic from the street because the tower was destroyed by Parliamentarian troops in the Siege of Colchester, and never rebuilt. The centuries have smoothed the ruined tower, which was reroofed in the 18th Century. It is, as Pevsner observes, 'picturesque'. The north aisle reveals a Norman origin, the lower part of the tower is late Norman, the south porch a jaunty and slightly odd 17th Century rebuilding, perhaps after the siege. To the east of the porch sits the absurd 19th Century Sparling memorial, as big as a car. St Martin underwent a major restoration in the 1890s at the hands of that Essex master craftsman Ernest Geldart, parish priest of Little Braxted, and he furnished and decorated it in his familiar Art Nouveau style. Almost none of these furnishings and decorations survive. The medieval churches in the centre of Colchester are dramatically close together, and depopulation of the centre meant that congregations fell. After the Second World War, there was a reorganisation of the central parishes, St Peter and St James at each end of the High Street becoming the key central churches, one Low and one High. St Martin was declared redundant in 1953. For a number of years after this it was in use as a theatre, its furnishings removed. Photographs of the time show, alarmingly, that all the interior walls had been painted black. The font, with its bullets and shot embedded during the siege, went to the Castle Museum. The church was rescued by the Redundant Churches Fund, now the Churches Conservation Trust, in the 1970s. Removal of the black paint also revealed a scheme of 15th Century wall paintings, including the remains of a doom above the chancel arch. It is the chancel itself which provides the biggest thrill, for it contains an exquisitely carved early 14th Century cross beam and support, which formed a frame and canopy of honour to the high altar. A remarkable survival, especially given the years of neglect and disuse. During his rebuilding of St Nicholas in 1876, George Gilbert Scott visited St Martin and was so excited by the cross beam that he repaired the entire chancel roof at his own expense to protect it. The large, square nave is almost empty, but a pleasing foil for an outstanding window by Robert Bayne for Heaton, Butler & Bayne in the 1860s. The only other coloured glass in the church is in the upper traces of the east window, the lower parts long since lost to vandalism and neglect. The church is open every day. Simon Knott, April 2018

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