Stockwell Congregational Chapel
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Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...
in
Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, England, has a number of notable
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
es.


Early churches


Butt Road Roman Church

Excavations in the 1980s for a new police station near the Maldon Road roundabout unearthed 371
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
graves and a long narrow building. The building was built between AD 320 and 340. Oriented east to west, an
apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...
was added to the east end in a later phase. The building was divided by a wooden screen and two rows of posts ran down the eastern half forming
aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...
s. The building has been interpreted on strong circumstantial evidence as an
early Christian church Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and bey ...
. If this is correct, it is probably the earliest known Christian church in Britain. The remains have been preserved and are visible from the public footpath.


St Helen's Chapel

Dedicated to
Saint Helena Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...
, the 14th-century ''Chronicle of Colchester'' states that the chapel was founded by the saint herself and refounded by
Eudo Dapifer Eudo Dapifer (sometimes Eudo fitzHerbertBarlow ''William Rufus'' p. 474 and Eudo de Rie); (died 1120), was a Norman aristocrat who served as a steward (server, Latin 'dapifer') under the kings William the Conqueror, William II Rufus, and Henry ...
in 1076. Most of the present building dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, incorporating Roman brick. Excavations in 1981 and 1984 in Maidenburgh Street, have shown that the Roman stone and brickwork under the north and east walls were part of a
theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...
. In the 14th century,
chantries A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a set of Christian liturgical celebrations for the dead (made up of the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead), or # a chantry chapel, a bu ...
were established in the chapel, but it was closed in 1539 after the Dissolution of St John's Abbey and it went into secular use. It became a house, a school, a library, a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
meeting-house and a warehouse. In the 1880s, the Round family who owned the castle, had the chapel
restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004, by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard Aus ...
by
William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a British Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was bo ...
. After use as a clergy meeting-room and a parish hall, it was used by the Castle Museum as a store. Since 2000, it has again been used as a place of worship by the
Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
Parish of St Helen.


Medieval churches


All Saints

All Saints’ Church is a twelfth-century church located in Colchester High Street. In 1953 it was declared a
redundant church A redundant church, now referred to as a closed church, is a church building that is no longer used for Christian worship. The term most frequently refers to former Anglican churches in the United Kingdom, but may also be used for disused churche ...
. The building is now the home of the Natural History Museum, Colchester. It is situated opposite
Colchester Castle Colchester Castle is a Norman architecture, Norman castle in Colchester, Essex, England, dating from the second half of the eleventh century. The keep of the castle is mostly intact and is the largest example of its kind anywhere in Europe, d ...
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 A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...
of
St Botolph Botolph of Thorney (; also called Botolph, Botulph or Botulf; later known as Saint Botolph; died ) was an English abbot and saint. He is regarded as the patron saint of boundaries, and by extension, of trade and travel, as well as various aspec ...
, 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 The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
. In 1650 the church was described as burnt and ruined after the
Siege of Colchester The siege of Colchester occurred in the summer of 1648 when the Second English Civil War reignited in several areas of Britain. Colchester found itself in the thick of the unrest when a Cavalier, Royalist army on its way through East Angli ...
, 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 St John Ambulance is an affiliated movement of charitable organisations in mostly Commonwealth countries which provide first aid education and consumables and emergency medical services. St John organisations are primarily staffed by volunte ...
depot until 1975 when it was converted into a
masonic Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
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 The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
, believed to date from about 1020. The Saxon doorway in the west side of the tower has a triangular head: a feature common in Anglo-Saxon windows but unusual in a doorway. An earlier church building may have existed on the site. The churchyard includes the graves of William Gilberd, discoverer of
electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...
and physician to
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
, and the composer
John Wilbye John Wilbye (baptized 7 March 1574September 1638) was an English madrigal composer. Early life and education The son of a tanner, he was born at Brome, Suffolk, England. (Brome is near Diss, Norfolk.) Career Wilbye received the patronage of th ...
.


St James the Great

St James the Great James the Great ( Koinē Greek: Ἰάκωβος, romanized: ''Iákōbos''; Aramaic: ܝܥܩܘܒ, romanized: ''Yaʿqōḇ''; died AD 44) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was the second of the apostles t ...
is a
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
church on East Hill in Colchester. The oldest part of the church is
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...
, dating from the 12th century. The nave, tower, and two aisles were built between the 13th and 15th centuries. The chancel and the Chapels of Our Lady and
Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...
and
Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...
were added around 1500. The radical priest John Ball, a leader of the
Peasants' Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ...
of 1381 preached at the church.


St John's Abbey

The
Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
of St
John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
, generally known as "St John's Abbey," founded in 1096, had a late 11th-century
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
until the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the execution of its
abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...
in 1539. Now all that remains is the gatehouse on St John's Green, which dates from the 15th century, and the church of St Giles, used as the parish church of the abbey.


St Martin's

St Martin's is a 12th-century church that survives in its original Norman form. The church is on West Stockwell Street in the old Dutch Quarter. Its tower was damaged in the
English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
and was never repaired. Today the church building is in the care of The
Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...
and is used as a community venue. The key is available from the
Colchester Borough Council Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the fi ...
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 Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...
s were
executed by burning Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
in the reign of the
Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...
. In the
English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
a
Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...
army used the church tower as a gun emplacement, which resulted in its destruction by
New Model Army The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 t ...
siege batteries. The theory that the tower gave rise to the nursery rhyme
Humpty Dumpty Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle, and is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from ...
is now probably disproved. The lower part of the tower is Norman; the upper parts were rebuilt in 1729 and the top in 1911. The rest of the church was rebuilt in 1872 to designs by Arthur Blomfield.
Philip Morant Philip Morant (6 October 1700 – 25 November 1770) was an English clergyman, author and historian. He is best known for his ''History and Antiquities of Colchester'' (1748) and his county history, ''The History and Antiquities of the County of ...
, the Essex historian, was Rector 1737–1770. There was a further major rebuild in 1872. In 1978 the parish was united with Christ Church in a new building in Ireton Road. The old church was made
redundant Redundancy or redundant may refer to: Language * Redundancy (linguistics), information that is expressed more than once Engineering and computer science * Data redundancy, database systems which have a field that is repeated in two or more table ...
; the bell was moved to St Leonard's in
Lexden Lexden is a suburb of Colchester and former civil parish, in the county of Essex, England. It was formerly a village, and has previously been called Lessendon, Lassendene and Læxadyne. In 2011 the ward had a population of 5,549. Lexden is app ...
and the organ to
Brentwood Cathedral The Cathedral of St Mary and St Helen is a Catholic cathedral in Brentwood, Essex, England. It is the seat of the Diocese of Brentwood. History Brentwood Cathedral began in 1861 as a parish church built in a Gothic style. This relatively smal ...
. In 1980 the building was reopened as Colchester Arts Centre.


St Nicholas

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...
' church formerly stood on the High Street. The original church was 12th century and the church was rebuilt in the 14th century, and
restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004, by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard Aus ...
again between 1875 and 1876 to designs by Sir
George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...
. The church had the highest
spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...
in Colchester. The
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
had the church demolished in 1955 and sold the site for commercial redevelopment. The Colchester Co-operative Society built a department store ("St Nicholas House") on the site. The building has retail at the ground floor and permission for residential development on the upper floors.


St Runwald's

St Runwald's church is one of only three churches were ever dedicated to the Saint in Britain. The church in Colchester formerly stood as part of "middle row" in the High Street. It was demolished, along with other buildings in the row, in the 1860s. The church graveyard is in West Stockwell Street, behind
Colchester Town Hall Colchester Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street in Colchester, Essex, England. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Colchester City Council, is a Grade I listed building. History The first building on the site, a moot ...
.


St Peter's

In origin a medieval church, St Peter's is on North Hill and largely consists of later Georgian material due to a major remodelling in 1758, but the building retains mediaeval fabric and underwent a further remodelling in 1895–96. During the medieval period the church yard contained a large stone cross from which gospels were read during the
Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is the Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Its name originates from the palm bran ...
procession.Ashdown-Hill, John (2009) Mediaeval Colchester's Lost Landmarks. Published by Breedon Books. () The churchyard also contained a large marker stone on its northern side into the 1500s. The Medieval church also contained a large
rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...
with a rood loft. The bells are rung every Thursday. Details of its history are available at the church.


St Leonard's-at-the-Hythe

St Leonard's-at-the-Hythe is a large medieval church at Colchester's Hythe river port. Along with St John's Abbey it was one of the two ecclesiastical buildings in Colchester which contained clocks. The church was the site of a battle during the 1648
Siege of Colchester The siege of Colchester occurred in the summer of 1648 when the Second English Civil War reignited in several areas of Britain. Colchester found itself in the thick of the unrest when a Cavalier, Royalist army on its way through East Angli ...
, and its south door still contains firing loops for muskets. The church is now redundant, and is cared for by the
Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...
.


Georgian churches


Baptist Church

In Eld Lane, built in 1834 on the site of Colchester's first purpose-built Baptist chapel of 1711.


Strict Baptist Chapel

Formerly in Stanwell Street, demolished in 1971 to make way for Colchester's Inner Ring Road. The chapel was built in 1811 or 1812 for a new congregation, some of whom had seceded from the Baptists in Eld Lane. Colchester
Elim Pentecostal Church The Elim Pentecostal Church is a UK-based Pentecostal Christian denomination. It was founded in Ireland in 1915 by George Jeffreys and is the second-largest Pentecostal denomination in the UK. History George Jeffreys (1889–1962), a Welshm ...
(see below) used the chapel 1957–1971.


Congregational Chapel

This red-brick chapel in East Stockwell Street was built in 1816–17. The chapel was built for Congregational minister Rev. Joseph Herrick, who was expelled from his previous meeting house in St Helen's Lane by the Unitarians in the congregation. It was refronted in 1834 with a
pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...
and Tuscan columns. After Herrick's death, his successor, Rev. Thomas Batty (father of Colchester artist Dora Batty), added new schoolrooms in 1868 and remodelled the chapel in 1875. It has been a Grade II-listed building since 1971.


Quaker Meeting House

A Grade II listed building in Church Street dating from 1803.


Victorian churches


All Saints, Shrub End

The parish church of Shrub End; formerly part of
Lexden Lexden is a suburb of Colchester and former civil parish, in the county of Essex, England. It was formerly a village, and has previously been called Lessendon, Lassendene and Læxadyne. In 2011 the ward had a population of 5,549. Lexden is app ...
, it became a separate parish in 1845. Designed in a Gothic Revival architecture, revival of Decorated Gothic by D. R. French, the red-brick church has a tower with a slated spire. MapRef TL 970232. A more detailed look at the church can be found on the church's website on www.shrubendparish.co.uk


St Botolph's

The current church building was dedicated in 1837. It is built in the style of the old Norman building, with semicircular arches and Norman ornamentation and was designed by William Mason of
Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...
. The Church was nearly destroyed by fire in the 1943 air raids. It had its own team of fire watchers which dealt with several
incendiary bombs Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires. They may destroy structures or sensitive equipment using fire, and sometimes operate as anti-personnel weaponry. Incendiarie ...
.


Garrison Church

Built in Military Road in 1855 to hold services for soldiers going to the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
, this large Grade II* listed timber church has space for a congregation of 500. It is now the
Romanian Orthodox Church The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the East ...
of St. John the Wonderworker.


St James the Less

This
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
of St James the Less and St Helen in Priory Street was designed by JJ Scoles, built in 1837 and enlarged in 1909–10. It is a Norman revival building with an
apsidal In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In Byzant ...
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
.


St John the Evangelist

The Church of St John the Evangelist Colchester was built in 1863 by Arthur Blomfield in the Decorated style. It is principally of red brick with yellow and blue brick and stone window tracery. It consists of a chancel and nave surmounted by a small bellcot at the west end. The chancel and its fittings and part of the nave were built with money collected in memory of J.T. Round. It has a boarded and tiled roof. In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the modern housing estate of St John's was built and a further estate of Highwoods was developed in the 1980s. From 1980 under the leadership of Rev Brian Nicholson, the numbers of the congregation steadily grew. Mainly through the generous giving from the church family, the church was significantly extended in 1987. Following continuing growth in church membership, St Luke's was planted, meeting weekly in the community centre on Highwoods. In 2012 the church undertook a million pound plus building project, replacing the old pre-fab church hall with a new multi purpose Community Centre.


United Reformed Church

In Lion Walk, this Gothic Revival church was designed in a Geometrical Decorated Gothic style and built in 1863 for a Congregational community that had been meeting in Colchester since the 17th century. The
1884 Colchester earthquake The Colchester earthquake, also known as the Great English earthquake, occurred on the morning of 22 April 1884 at 09:18. It caused considerable damage in Colchester and the surrounding villages in Essex. In terms of overall destruction ca ...
damaged its steeple. The church became part of the new
United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...
in 1972.


Modern churches


St Barnabas' Church, Old Heath

Built on the site of a Victorian church, St
Barnabas Barnabas (; ; ), born Joseph () or Joses (), was according to tradition an early Christians, Christian, one of the prominent Disciple (Christianity), Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jews, Cyprio ...
was built in 1949 to replace the original church which was in a state of disrepair. A small and friendly church, it has various services and masses during the week including a Parish Sung Mass on a Sunday Morning at 10am.


Castle Methodist Church

In Maidenburgh Street next to
Colchester Castle Colchester Castle is a Norman architecture, Norman castle in Colchester, Essex, England, dating from the second half of the eleventh century. The keep of the castle is mostly intact and is the largest example of its kind anywhere in Europe, d ...
, this 20th-century building was opened in 1970 on the site of the "great round meeting house" where
John Wesley John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies ...
preached in the 18th century. A wooden pulpit that he used is preserved in the new church.


Colchester New Church

Colchester New Church at 175 Maldon Road was built in 1924. In 1967 the church building was expanded. The sanctuary was extended two metres in length, a new school room, and a new entrance porch were added. The designer of the new additions was architect Geoff P. Dawson.


Elim Pentecostal Church

Colchester's Elim Pentecostal congregation formed in 1930. A temporary tabernacle was built in Fairfax Road in 1931 and served until 1957, when the congregation moved to the former Strict Baptist Chapel in Stanwell Street (see above). When that chapel was demolished in 1971 to make way for a new road, the congregation had a new church built in Walsingham Road. The congregation now meets in a newer building on Clematis Way.


Greenstead Evangelical Free Church

Greenstead Evangelical Free Church is on Magnolia Drive on the Greenstead estate. It was built in 1963, making it almost as old as the estate itself. It is affiliated with the
Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) is a network of 661 independent evangelical churches in the United Kingdom. FIEC exists to help "Independent churches work together to reach Britain for Christ". Governance The FIEC st ...
.Greenstead Evangelical Free Church
/ref>


References


Sources

*{{cite book , last1=Pevsner , first1=Nikolaus , author-link1=Nikolaus Pevsner , last2=Radcliffe , first2=Enid , orig-year=1954 , year=1965 , series=
The Buildings of England ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
, title=Essex , location=Harmondsworth , publisher=
Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
, isbn=0-14-071011-6 , page
132–137
, url-access=registration , url=https://archive.org/details/londonicitiesof00pevs/page/132