Former Church Of St Leonard At The Hythe

W tower late C14.

Chancel arch, south arcade, south aisle, clerestory and south porch late C15

EXTERIOR: A small and attractive church, largely in a late medieval style.

The chancel has a heavily restored C15 east window vertical tracery,

a restored C14 window in its south wall

The north-east vestry has an early C16 north window and a C19 east door.

The south aisle and south chancel chapel are continuous, and have an embattled parapet and heavily restored early C16 windows.

The south chapel door is early C16 in origin, but has been heavily restored.

The north chapel and aisle have similar windows, but the north aisle door is C14 as is the north aisle west window.

The nave clerestory has early C16 two-light windows in square frames, all heavily restored.

The embattled, two-storied south porch is late C15 in origin, but was entirely rebuilt in the C19, and has windows in square frames.

The south doorway is late C15 and has a pointed head in a square frame with carved spandrels

the south door is also C15.

The lower parts of the three stage west tower are late C14, the upper part was rebuilt after an earthquake in 1884.

The west window has been heavily restored, and the blocked west door below it is probably C14 in origin.

INTERIOR: The chancel arch is late C15.

There is an early C16 squint from the south chapel into the chancel.

The C14 former chancel north door now forms the entrance to the vestry.

That on the north is early C14, and has moulded, pointed arches on quatrefoil piers with attached, half-round shafts and moulded capitals and bases.

The south arcade was built or rebuilt in the later C15, and has four-centred arches on quatrefoil piers with half round shafts that have been partially rebuilt.

The arches from the aisles into the chancel chapels are early C16 and have continuous outer orders and inner orders on shafts with moulded capitals and bases.

The tower arch is late C14 and has a continuous outer order and an inner order on polygonal shafts.

The doors survive for what was clearly a very large and elaborate rood screen stretching the whole width of the church, including upper and lower doors in the north-west corner of the north chapel and another in the south-west corner of the north chapel at high level.

The north aisle and north and south chapel roofs are early C16.

C15 south door

early C16 door to vestry.

Octagonal C15 font originally in East Donyland church, brought to St Leonards in 1840.

The chancel and chapel screens, and the rood, are early C20, but incorporate some late C15 or early C16 screenwork.

Late C19 or early C20 stone pulpit, and early C20 painted and stencilled reredos in south chapel.

Good early C20 stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne.

Wall paintings of 1901 over the chancel arch

the decorative scheme formerly extended along the nave walls above the arcades, and medieval wall paintings are said to have been discovered, then painted over, in the chancel in the 1860s.

Monument to William Hawkins, d. 1812, by George Lufkin.

HISTORY: There was a church here by the mid-C12

the present building is largely the product of successive rebuildings and additions of the C14, C15

West tower is late C14.

South arcade, south aisle and south porch are C15.

The church was damaged during the Civil War and repaired in 1662.

SOURCES: Bettley, J and Pevsner, N, Buildings of England Essex, 267 RCHME Essex III, 44-6 VCH Essex IX, REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The former Church of St Leonard at the Hythe, Hythe Hill, Colchester, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Much good quality work of the C14

late C15/early C16, retaining medieval fittings * Good hammerbeam roof of c1500 in the nave * Extensively restored in the C19, when a number of good fittings were introduced