St Andrew

EXTERIOR: The red brick, late C16, W tower is of 3 stages and has dark diaper patterning in the brickwork.

It has some reused moulded stones in the jambs and is set within a moulded C16 brick frame for a shorter window.

It has offset buttresses, three pairs of C13-style lancets and a C13-style door with a pointed head and continuously chamfered opening.

The NW corner of the nave has C12 quoins partly in Roman brick, with later brick repairs.

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.

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

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.

There was a church at Greenstead before the Norman Conquest, although the present building was apparently not built until the C12.

SOURCES Bettley, J. and Pevsner, N., Buildings of England: Essex , 224 VCH Essex IX , 382-90 RCHME Essex III 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.