Essex Heritage Guide - Historic Churches

A delicious Norman country church built of puddingstone rubble and limestone, set in a rural landscape. The church was begun in the 11th century, but the nave is 12th century, while the chancel dates to the early 14th century and the timber porch to Elizabethan times.
Barlon Road, Little Bromley, Essex, England, CO11 2PP

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This unusual modern church replaces a medieval building destroyed in 1940 by a German landmine. Within the modern building are three late 13th-century wooden effigies of the De Horkesley family, 14th-century memorial brasses to the Synebournes, and a 16th-century brass to Lady Bridget Marney.
Vinesse Road, Little Horkesley, Essex, England, CO6 4DB

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Heritage Highlight: Superb 13th-century wooden effigies

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A lovely 13th/14th-century church with a memorial to Laurence Washington, a 17th-century clergyman and ancestor of US President George Washington. The tower is a very unusual triangular shape, and the south chapel boasts wonderful 14th and 15th-century arcading.
High Street, Maldon, Essex, England, CM9 4QE

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Heritage Highlight: Triangular tower and wonderful 15th-century arcading

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A 12th-century church on the edge of the River Blackwater, the tower of St Mary's has served as a navigation aid for sailors on the estuary for centuries, first with a beacon fire, then with a striking white shingled spire. There is a Norman window in the nave and medieval floor tiles near the rood stairs.
Church Street, Maldon, Essex, England, CM9 5HN

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Heritage Highlight: Norman window and 18th-century landmark tower

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The intriguing little parish church of St John in Mount Bures stands beside the ruined Norman castle mound that gave its name to the village. The church dates to the early 12th century and is built of coursed flint rubble dressed with limestone and clunch. Look closely and you will see bits of Roman brick quoins embedded in the walls.
Hall Road, Mount Bures, Essex, England

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Heritage Highlight: Reused Roman bricks in the walls

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The largest parish church in Essex, a superb example of Perpendicular style, on the site of an early Saxon church. Medieval and Tudor brasses and tombs to the Braybrooke and Audley families are interior highlights. The nave features beautifully carved arcades supported on slender pillars. One of the great town churches of England.
Church Street, Saffron Walden, Essex, England, CB101BP

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Heritage Highlight: Lord Audley's tomb (1544) and striking Perpendicular nave arcade

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One of the most interesting parish churches in Essex, on a site used for worship since the Saxon period. Notable for its red-brick Tudor nave arcades, unusual horseshoe-shaped Communion rails, and 16th-century tombs of the Lords Darcy.
Church Square, St Osyth, Essex, England, CO168NX

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In a lonely position looking towards the North Sea and the entrance to the Blackwater estuary stands the Saxon chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, founded in the 7th century by St Cedd, atop the foundations of the Roman fort of Othona. St Peter's is a single cell structure, made with reused Roman bricks and stones. It is among the least altered Saxon buildings in Britain.
Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, England, CM0 7PN

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Heritage Highlight: One of the best preserved Saxon churches in Britain

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Though only a short distance from the bustle of Stanstead Airport, the ancient church of St Mary's at Stansted Mountfitchet stands in an isolated position near Stansted Hall and well away from the village it was built to serve.
Off Church Road, Burton End, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, CM24 8UB

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One of the great Anglian churches, St John's dates to 1340. There are wonderful grotesque carvings on the main north porch, 14th-century stained glass windows, and a wonderfully intricate 15th-century font case and cover which completely encloses the font.
Watling Street, Thaxted, Essex, England, CM6 2PE

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Heritage Highlight: 14th-century stained glass and 15th-century carved font cover

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