St Martin's Church, Colchester

The nave and the tower of the church date from the 12th century. The church was used by a theatre group between 1957 and 1987, but by the latter date it had become structurally unsafe. It then continued to deteriorate until it was vested in the Churches Conservation Trust in 1996. By this time some emergency repairs had been carried out, which were financed by English Heritage. The Trust then continued to repair the building, planning this in two phases. In the first phase, the church was made dry and stable. The second phase involved cleaning the interior of the church, including the wall paintings, limewashing the remainder of the walls that had been painted black by the theatre company,…

St Martin's is constructed in flint rubble and it has tiled roofs. The truncated tower and the nave are Norman in style. Many Roman stones have been incorporated into the walls of the tower and the nave. Internally, at the apex of the arch of the chancel roof is the carving of a Green Man. Two glazed plaques of encaustic tiles, surviving from Geldart's aborted restoration, are in the aisles.