I have to admit that I'm not entirely clear as to the status, ownership or purpose of the Priory and don't know if, when the restoration is complete, it's properly accessible as in a NT or EH property - the interweb is unclear.
I do know this is absolutely Grade 1 stunning, worth a visit on its own and once the restoration is complete I will be back.
ST OSYTH PRIORY. St Osyth was the daughter of the first Christian king of the East Angles. She was martyred in 653 near the place of the present Priory, where she had founded a nunnery. The priory (later abbey) was established for Augustinian canons by Richard de Belmeis, Bishop of London, shortly before 1127. A few fragments remain, and a few more from the C13. The state of the buildings at that time will first be examined. The priory church lay NE of the surviving (later) Gatehouse. The cloister was to the N of the church, surrounded as usual by domestic ranges on the W, N, and E sides. On the ground floor of the W range were the cellars, or rather storerooms, because they were not below ground. Two of these with single-chamfered ribs across, dating from the C13, exist in the range SW of the so-called Bishop’s Lodging. Opposite, in the E range, in direct communication with the N transept of the church, to make access easy at night, was the Dormitory. Of this several chambers of the undercroft can still be seen.They are of the earliest period, roughly groin-vaulted. In the N range was the Refectory. All that exists of this is a piece of cusped blank arcading at its E end, fine C13 work. Of equally high quality is the passage the other side of that E wall, now convened into a chapel. This is the best piece of the earlier Middle Ages at St Osyth, with two slender Purbeck shafts dividing it into six bays and with tripartite elegantly filleted ribs. In addition N of the site of the Refectory, close to the C19 Kitchen wing, is a corner of a C13 building with two semi-circular responds. The capitals can no longer be recognized in their details.
We have no means of ascertaining C14 and early C15 alterations or additions of any size. But in the late C15 the GATEHOUSE was built, the most splendid survival of the abbey. It vies with the gatehouse of St John’s Abbey at Colchester for first place amongst monastic buildings in Essex. Like the gatehouse of St John’s the facade to the outer world is of much more magnificence than that to the monastery. It has a wall covered all over with flushwork panelling, from the quatrefoil frieze at the base to the chequer-pattern of the battlements. The tall carriageway has a two-centred arch with lively carvings of St George and the Dragon in the spandrels. To its l. and r. are two pedestrian entrances. There are tall slender niches above all three entrances, the higher middle one with a canopy reaching right up to the two-light upper windows. To the l. and r. of this centre are very broad polygonal towers of three storeys. Inside the gatehouse is an elaborate lierne vault of two bays with carved bosses. It springs from slim wall-shafts, the middle one on each side carrying thirteen ribs. The outer side towards the monastery has no flushwork panel tracery, only chequer and diaper patterns. It has only one wide gateway but four square turrets. The spandrels of the gateway are decorated with angels in quatrefoils holding shields. The gatehouse has two-storeyed embattled ranges to its l. and r. The r. one must be much older; for, invisible from outside, its E bay contained originally a C13 gateway of two orders. The rest is C15, like the gatehouse. However, at r. angles to the l. range, projecting to the S, are the remains of another range. There is no more left of it than its E wall, with a roundheaded gateway apparently of the C14. So here was yet one more building connecting the priory with the outer world.
The next to enrich the architecture of St Osyth’s Abbey was Abbot John Vintoner. A date 1527 is carved on one of his works. He built (like e.g. the abbots of Forde in Dorset and Muchelney in Somerset at the same time) a mansion for himself which, though attached to the abbey, could compete with that of any nobleman. It is of brick, which had by then become the fashionable building material, and extends N of the C13 cellarer’s range (i.e. W of the refectory) and then turns W to face the great gatehouse. Here Abbot Vintoner built a triple gateway not quite in line with the older gatehouse and above it his own hall with a magnificent tall oriel window of six lights. The window itself is new, but the corbelling, base and head are original, as well as the stone panelling of the jambs and arch of the oriel inside. It is all of the richest, though the motifs are not fanciful nor indeed imaginative - mostly cusped panelling, quatrefoils and shields. Only at the head does the new Italian style make an appearance - one of the earliest in Essex. There are small naked figures and Renaissance leaves. The range behind this gateway and oriel was entirely remodelled in 1865. It is known as the Bishop’s Lodging. The range to the SE of it is much plainer with straight gables and straightheaded windows of several lights, each light with an arched head. No attempt is made to match the oriel front nor to show symmetry in any other way. Inside this building on the ground floor there is much good panelling, not in situ, exhibiting vine ornament (for Vintoner), initials, dolphins etc.
The abbey was dissolved in 1539. It belonged for a time to Thomas Cromwell, then to the Princess Mary, and finally in 1553 came into the hands of Lord Darcy. His additions certainly resulted in a vast and splendid mansion, but what it was like, when he and his son lived there, it is difficult to evoke. The church and much around the cloister had been pulled down. The refectory perhaps was the Great Hall. Above the dormitory undercroft, instead of the dormitory, were several rooms of some size. A proud tower was built at the SE end of this range to lead up to these. It has a square newel stair with solid newel. The exterior has square turrets, windows still similar to those of Abbot Vintoner, and is faced with chequerwork of flint and septaria (as is also the new upper dormitory storey). S of the Abbot’s S range Lord Darcy also added, also with flint and septaria chequer and also with forms still entirely Perp, polygonal angle turrets or buttresses. Here another tower was built too. This now carries a pretty C18 lantern with a clock. Moreover a completely new detached range was put up N of the old dormitory. Of this only one angle with a polygonal turret stands upright. Into what kind of pattern can all this have formed itself? The answer probably is: none. No symmetry was attempted, just as no Renaissance decoration was used.
The rest of the story is brief. About 1600 a brick range was built connecting the clock tower part with the old dormitory parts. Then decay set in. Nothing was kept up carefully, and when in the mid C18 convenient accommodation was wanted, an addition was made for Lord Rochford to the W of the abbot’s hall - no more than a red brick villa with a bow window. Was it at that time also that the lawns were made and the trees planted to convert the whole into a picturesque landscape garden with ruins?
One more word on the outbuildings - a large BARN continuing the range W of the great gatehouse. It is of the C16, of stone on the N side, timber-framed on the others and has tie-beams with arched braces inside. To the N of this and to the SW of the C18 ‘villa’ is a detached C16 building of unknown purpose.
ST OSYTH. Its quiet charm has attracted men from the days when Britain attracted Caesar, and from then till now the lover of the beautiful has found something at St Osyth.
The pilgrim comes to the broad green which creeps up to the walls of Priory Park, one of the rarest ruins of Norman England, set among spacious gardens and noble trees. The Saxon nunnery of St Osyth has vanished, but here are Roman bricks the Saxons handled when they built it. They are in the walls and in the foundations. A Roman pavement of red and buff mosaic has been found in the park. It is said that this place goes back to the days of the first Christian king of East Anglia, whose daughter was St Osyth, founder of the abbey here, and it is thought that Canute gave it to Earl Godwin, from whom it passed to the Bishop of London 50 years after the Battle of Hastings, when the priory was founded and these walls were built.
They are magnificent even in ruin. It is recorded that when Henry the Eighth and Thomas Cromwell seized this place the lead on the roof was worth £1000, and among the treasures was a silver casket in which was kept the skull of St Osyth.
By the green is an arched gateway of the 14th century enriched with deep mouldings, big enough for farm carts to pass through yet looking small by the two-storeyed gatehouse, adorned with flints and panels of white stone. In the spandrels of the gateway is St Michael fighting the Dragon, and on each side are elegant niches; in the roof of its arch are little gems of sculpture, among them St Osyth crowned, a hart with a napkin round its neck, and Gabriel bringing the good news to the Madonna.
Through all this we come into a scene of great beauty, the park in which were planted our first Lombardy poplars. It has a heronry of scores of nests and roses blooming where the old monks chanted their praise. Beyond the roses stands the great tower with three turrets, built of chequered stones in the middle of the 16th century. The view from the top is of supreme beauty, the sea and the richly wooded country round giving us a picture not to be forgotten.
By the tower is the wondrous spectacle of thousands of red bricks crumbling away. They were made by the Romans, handled by the Saxons, and built up by the Normans into the great arches which supported the dormitory of the monks and are now slowly crumbling before our eyes.
Behind them is a small chapel made from a vaulted passage, the ribs of its roof springing from marble columns six centuries old; and beyond this chapel a lovely clock tower watches over the site of the old cloisters. Built of chequer work, it is a little rival of the abbot’s tower, and is as old as the house beyond it, both built in the 16th century, though the house has cellars twice as old. The front of the house is dated 1527 and is like a picture book. The wall is patterned in red and black bricks and has a magnificent oriel window overhanging a moulded arch. Round this window 88 shields bear the devices of king and bishop, canon and saint, with the arms of France and many a curious rebus, including that of the Abbot Vintoner who built it, a vine and a tun.
A great national treasure is this group of buildings, and greatly is it cared for. It comes from the days of our Roman masters, through the days of our Saxon forefathers, into the age of our Norman conquerors, and here still stand these venerable walls, rich in history and in beauty, with all the glory of an English garden about them and the story of one of our saints woven into them.
The village has many ancient cottages; Priory Cottage with a projecting hall of the 15th century, one by the cross-roads built in the 16th century, and the moated St Clair Hall built in the 14th century. In the marshes stand Martello towers built to keep back Napoleon, and there is a mill set up long ago to be worked by the tide.
The church, with its massive tower, is a noble structure of Tudor days, seized by Henry the Eighth while the walls were still being raised. We can see the place where the building came to an untimely end, the piers for the new chancel arch standing unoccupied against the walls. Five lofty brick arches run from here down each side of the nave to the west wall, where Norman masonry was pierced by the tower arch in the 14th century. Both the wide aisles, with their brick arches into the transept, are 16th century; so are the brick and stone porch and the wonderful roofs. Lovely white arches nearly 700 years old divide the transepts from the chapels and the chancel. In the chancel is a surprise which the villagers have called The Fold, altar rails curiously shaped like a horseshoe. On an alabaster tomb lies the first Lord Darcy with his wife, he with the Garter round his knee, and by them lies their son John, his wife beside him in a fur-lined mantle. Another John is carved in alabaster wearing the robes and cap of a serjeant-at-law. There is a lovely medieval font with the sword of Paul and the keys of Peter and a portrait of St Osyth carved on it; and St Osyth is also in a lovely modern window. We may compare these portraits in glass and stone with those drawn by medieval artists on 13th century seals, of which some casts are shown in a case by the door.
Among so much that is fine and splendid to look at is one small tribute here that will appeal to many travellers, for it is in memory of a native of St Osyth, Benjamin Golding who founded Charing Cross Hospital. A student at St Thomas’s, he became physician for West London Infirmary, which he transformed 100 years ago into the famous hospital at the heart of London.
The story of the village saint takes us back to the day when Christianity began to change the hearts of the rulers of our Motherland thirteen centuries ago. Frithewald and Walburga were King and Queen of East Anglia and were the first rulers to adopt the new faith. Their daughter Osyth loved the religion of hope and joy and made others love it too. As soon as she was old enough she was betrothed to Sighere, son of Sebert, first Christian king of the neighbouring kingdom of Essex. Great festivities took place at the wedding, yet when the feast was at its height Sighere caught sight of a splendid stag passing the house and without a thought for his bride called to his men, rushed out to his horse, and galloped in pursuit. Hunting for him was more important than marriage, thought Osyth, and when Sighere returned from the chase he found that she, too, had left the feast and betaken herself with her maids to the nearest nunnery. An agreement was made by which Sighere gave Osyth the village of Chich, where she founded a nunnery and gave her name to the village.
Years passed and a wooden church was built above the creek; and then Inguar and Hubba, the Danes, came raiding. They sailed up the Colne and burned the nunnery, and, seizing Osyth, commanded her to bow before the images of their gods; and on her refusal cut off her head. The legend is that from the spot where she fell a fountain gushed forth, but for us her life of devotion in those rough days is miracle enough.
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