Patrick Comerford
During our recent visit to Colchester, I visited some of the churches in the town centre, as well as the castle, the Roman and Norman walls, the town hall, the former Jewish quarter in Stockwell Street, and the sites of the town’s synagogues.
Saint Botolph’s Priory in Colchester was founded ca 1093, and was the first and leading Augustinian house in England until it was dissolved at the Tudor reformation in 1536.
The priory was founded on the site of a Saxon church dedicated to Saint Botolph, with a tower that resembled the Saxon tower of Holy Trinity Church in Colchester. The church’s transformation into an Augustinian priory was initiated by priest named Norman, who had studied under Anselm of Canterbury in France before returning to England and settling in Colchester.
In Colchester, Norman joined a college of secular priests at Saint Botolph’s Church who wanted to join a religious order. Norman suggested the Augustinian order, which at the time had no houses in England, and received the approval of Anselm as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Saint Botolph’s Church became Saint Botolph’s Priory, and Norman later left Colchester to become the first prior of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate.
Unlike nearby Saint John’s Abbey, Saint Botolph's Priory at first received little support from rich patrons, despite an endowment from Henry I, and it was several decades before the priory church was fully built. It was built in the Norman style on the site of the earlier church, and the work was completed by 1177 when the priory church was dedicated.
The house was headed by a Prior, and initially had 12 canons representing the 12 Apostles; a thirteenth canon was added to the foundation in 1281. The church was 53.7 metres (176 ft) long – about twice as long as the surviving standing ruins – with a central tower and transepts. The nave was 33.5 metres (110 ft) long, and 16.75metres (55 ft) wide. The rose window in the gable is thought to have been one of the earliest examples in England.
The church had several side chapels, including a lady chapel and chapels dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Thomas Becket and the Holy Trinity.
The main west door of the church was known as the Pardon Door, because it was there pardons were granted on the feast of Saint Denis (9 October), known as Pardon Day in mediaeval Colchester.
The cloisters were on its south side of the church, and the canons’ dormitory was refurbished in 1383.
The church had at least two bells, a Sanctus bell and a requiem bell.
Although Saint Botolph’s not as wealthy as its neighbour and rival, Saint John’s Abbey, the priory had considerable holdings in Essex and other places in south and east England. The church of Saint Peter, Colchester, was appropriated to the priory in 1318, and other churches attached to the priory included All Saints’, Saint James’s, and Saint Martin in Colchester, and the church in Frating.
A violent clash between the prior and canons of Saint Botolph’s and the monks of Saint John’s Abbey in the mid-14th century arose out of disputes over Saint Peter’s Church in Colchester.
Thomas Turner, the last prior of Saint Botolph’s, was elected 1527. The prior and seven canons of Saint Botolph’s took the oath of fealty in 1534, and the priory was dissolved in 1535, when it was granted to Sir Thomas Audley. The nave of the priory church was retained as a parish church, but the choir was demolished along with the cloisters, chapter house and other monastic buildings.
During the Siege of Colchester in 1648 in the Second English Civil War, when Colchester was besieged by the Parliamentarian New Model Army, Saint Botolph’s was caught in the crossfire of the assault on South Gate, and was reduced to ruins.
The parish of Saint Botolph’s was left without a parish church after the siege of Colchester, and for almost 200 years the parishioners worshipped at All Saints’ Church on the High Street.
A Gothic Victorian church was built next to the priory ruins in 1837, on the site of the monastic kitchens and refectory. It was designed by the architect William Mason (1810-1897), and his design, inside and outside, reflects that of its 12th century predecessor.
Saint Botolph’s Church, dominated by its massive tower, was built in white brick, earning it the nickname of ‘the White Elephant’. The external brickwork has weathered to a darker hue, but, inside, the visitor is greeted by a bright contrast of white, scarlet and gold.
The church retains its original plan and most of its three-sided gallery in the style of the gallery churches in London. The east windows are of splendid Flemish stained glass and a window in the south aisle commemorates Samuel Harsnett (1561-1631), Archbishop of York (1629-1631), who was born in Colchester. His writings are said to have influenced Shakespeare and Milton.
The nave was reordered in the 1970s, when the cast iron rood screen and pulpit were removed from the chancel and the fixed pews were removed from the nave.
The raised daises, left after the pews were taken out, were removed in 1988 and the nave was levelled. A dividing partition was installed at the west end in 1990 to give a separate welcome area and some hospitality facilities. The church extension in 2001 provided a hall, kitchen, toilets and a vestry and meeting room.
The ruins of Saint Botolph’s Priory are now a public park, and improvements in 2010-2012 made the ruins more accessible to the public.
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