C15 phases
EXTERIOR: The chancel has diagonal eastern buttresses, and a C15 E window of three, traceried lights.
There are two C14 windows and a C14 door in the chancel S wall.
The nave has two 3-light windows to the east of the door, and a traceried, C14 2-light window to the west of it.
The late C14 N door has been rest in later flintwork.
The nave W window is a single light of c.1200, but the wall in which it is set has been rebuilt.
The S aisle has three early C14 2-light windows in the S wall.
The aisle W window is a C14 single light, and the E window is of three lights.
The S door is also C14.
The C15 S porch has a four-centred outer opening in a square head.
INTERIOR: On either side of the chancel arch is half of a tall, moulded arch of c.1200, probably originally for side altars flanking a narrower chancel arch.
These were cut back when the present mid C13 chancel arch was built.
In the S wall of the chancel is an elaborate, c.1230-40 arrangement of (from the E) a piscina, a stepped sedilia in the dropped sill of the window, and a 5-bay wall arcade above a bench.
The two eastern arches are C13 and have two chamfered orders.
The third arch is C14 and has larger chamfers on the orders
it is probably a reworking of a C13 arch.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Fine mid C13 suite of piscina, stepped sedilia and bench under an arcade in the chancel.
There is another C13 piscina in the S aisle.
C15 stoup in the porch.
Chancel tile pavement by Maw and Co.
A later C16 helm with a timber crest of a dog's head is preserved in the chancel.
Some traces of early C13 wall painting including black lines and red decoration survive in the northern recess by the chancel arch.
Some fragments of C14
C15 glass reset in two of the S aisle windows.
HISTORY The joint entry in the Domesday Book of 1086 for Good and High Easter includes a church, but as both villages have churches, it is not clear which church this refers to
however, the narrowness of the chancel arch implied by the large c.1200 arches that formerly flanked it suggests that it was early, perhaps pre-Conquest and thus the church referred to in the Domesday Book.
Good Easter church was given to St Martin-le-Grand, London shortly after the Norman conquest.
The earliest fabric is the nave of c.1200,
the chancel was rebuilt c.1230-40.
The church has earlier origins, however, as the partial arches on either side of the C13 chancel arch must have flanked an earlier, narrow chancel arch belonging to a small chancel, but all traces of this chancel, and the nave to which it was attached, are now lost.
The eastern three bays of the S aisle were added c.1220,
the aisle was widened and extended in the early C14.
The S porch was added in the C15 and a N vestry was apparently also added to the chancel in the C15, but it was subsequently removed.
SOURCES Lynn Pearson, Tile Gazetteer: A Guide to British Tile and Architectural Ceramics Locations Buildings of England: Essex , 378-9 RCHME Essex II , 87-9 RCHME Investigators' Notes , National Monuments Record, Swindon.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of St Andrew, Good Easter is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Parish church of C13 and C14, rebuilt around an older building, with very good surviving fabric, the W end rebuilt in the 1880's following a fire. * Very picturesque, if rebuilt, timber belfry. * Fine C13 piscina, sedilia and bench in the chancel. * Partially surviving decorative scheme in the chancel by Ernest Geldart.