Easthorpe

I visited St Mary the Virgin in a torrential downpour and it was locked with no sign of a keyholder so this may have contributed to my utter indifference to the exterior - despite being "essentially Norman" it has been severely restored, although I did like the brick lined nave windows and north door as well as the curious round window in the south nave wall. Being unable to gain entry I can tell you nothing of the interior.

ST EDMUND. Nicely placed with a timber-framed house opposite and the early C17 Easthorpe Hall a little to the W. Small church with nave and chancel under one roof. Belfry. Essentially Norman - see the W window high up, and several N and S windows and indications of windows as well as plain doorways. The Norman church had an apse. Of this the beginning is exposed on the S side. The chancel is an alteration of the C13. It has a good Sedilia with two pointed trefoiled arches on shafts, and three widely spaced stepped lancet windows with internal dog-tooth ornamentation. Some C14 windows were inserted to give more light. In addition there is a curious quatrefoil ‘low side window’ leading to a recess in the S wall. - PAINTING. Mid C13 figures in the jambs and splay of one S window: Resurrection and Angels. - STAINED GLASS. Christ preaching, German or Swiss, c. 1530 (S window). - PLATE. Late C16 Cup and Paten, re-modelled.

EASTHORPE. Here the Normans, in building their church, picked up the tiles the Romans left behind them. They framed their windows with them. The medieval artists painted the window splays and their colour is not entirely faded. But the church has been transformed, the Norman apse has vanished, and the chancel has been lengthened. The stonework of the windows and the sedilia is decorated with medieval carving, and in one of the windows is 16th century glass of Our Lord preaching in Galilee.

There is an ancient cottage with an overhanging storey facing the church, and a timbered hall of the 15th century close by.

Simon K -

Apparently closed, now a meeting and conference centre. A pleasant enough small Essex church with barge-boarded bell turret. Much evidence of its Saxon/Norman life in the walls. 

Looking through the window, all furnishings have been removed except for the altar, font and pulpit (all 19th Century) and the church filled with modern tables with chairs around them, a top table in the chancel with white board, etc.

Flickr set.