Site of St Marys Church, Pleshey (EHER 7323)

St Mary’s Church was dedicated between 1244-59, sited in the north-west quadrant of the town enclosure. In 1393 the church was demolished except for a small chapel and the new church and college of the Holy Trinity was built close to the castle.

Depicted on the 1st ed OS map as site of St Marys Church St Mary’s Church was dedicated between 1244-59 (the full dedication was the Church of Our Lord, St Mary, St Nicholas and All Saints). It was sited in the north-west quadrant of the town enclosure. When the location of the parish church was moved to the new foundation of the church and college of the Holy Trinity in 1393, St Mary’s church was demolished except for a small chapel, dedicated to St Nicholas (possibly the original de Mandeville chapel). The master of the College of Holy Trinity took charge over both his own church and the chapel, and mass continued to be said daily in St Nicholas’s Chapel. Part of a flint rubble wall foundation for St Mary’s Church was observed during a watching-brief in 1996 on an extension at Hill House, Back Lane. A further flint rubble wall foundation was found to the east of this, interpreted by the excavator as belonging to a separate building. A total of six inhumations were discovered, including one that had been severely disturbed, probably during the construction of the house in the 1950’s. Three years previous to the watching-brief a medieval pewter chalice had been discovered by metal-detector on the approximate location of this burial suggesting that the burial was that of a priest. A resistivity survey in the field adjoining this property has located the remainder of St Mary’s Church. This shows a building aligned east-west, 25m long by 15m wide, with a central nave and aisles. The chancel extended into the area of Hill House, the wall observed at the eastern corner of the extension being the end wall of the chancel.<1> <2> Information from NRHE Site of St Mary's Church (NR) <3> The original church is said to have stood within the (Town) enclosure. <4> Field Survey, 1975 No trace of the church foundations is visible on the surface though the site is marked by disturbed ground. (OS siting accepted). Human remains are said to have been found at TQ 66401458 when a modern house was built. <5> St Mary Pleshey. The original parish church, long since demolished, lay within the town enclosure, it was replaced by Holy Trinity Church which forms part of the medieval college complex, just outside the town. The site of St Mary's is now a paddock which preserves the outline of the churchyard; its orientation is interesting and most certainly predates part of the present street layout (particularly Back Lane). <6> Coller, writing in 1861, says that the old church stood on the opposite side of the road to the present church, beyond the village inn. The location derived by the OS is in a field called Old Church Yard on the Tithe map. This suggests that the church was probably located nearer to the road than the OS suggests. <7>