The coordinates are not at the listed coordinates but you will need to go there to collect the information you need for the final location.
The Church
This is mainly a 15th-century building, a testament to the wealth and influence of East Anglian wool merchants in the medieval period. There are excellent 15th and 16th-century brasses, including many to the Paycocke family. The church is large and spacious, with huge Perpendicular windows.
St Peter’s Timeline
1089 Domesday Book records a priest in Coggeshall.
1140c Queen Matilda founds Savigny order at Little Coggeshall. Abbey built.
1240c St Nicholas Chapel built near the Abbey Gatehouse.
1324 – 26 Main part of church built on present site.
1420c Church enlarged and dedicated to St. Peter Ad Vincula (patronal day 1st August). Henry III grants Lammas Fair rights to the town.
1461 Thomas Paycocke (butcher) buried in St. Peter’s. Extensive gifts to the church. Grave no longer marked.
1518 Thomas Paycocke buried at St. Peter’s (right front marble).
1519 Robert Paycocke buried in St. Peter’s (left front marble).
1538 The Abbey was dissolved and land sold off. St. Nicholas Chapel becomes a barn, later a cowshed.
1570 – 1650 Church expanded and restored. Heyday of the local wool trade.
1580 Thomas Paycocke III buried in St. Peter’s. A substantial amount of money given to the church.
1665 The Guyon Charity starts distribution of bread and tokens.
1787 St. Peter’s bells rung to celebrate King George III’s birthday.
1841 Revd. W.J. Dampier is installed as Rector and is determined to restore the seriously neglected church.
1851 Revd. Dampier and Curate, E.L. Cutts, set up a restoration fund.
1852 The restoration of St. Peter’s started.
1855 The newly carved doors are installed.
1863 The Church re-seated. ISPEBRCC* gives £150 to seat 1110 people (including 565 poor).
1865 East window presented by and for the Hanbury family.
1871 New pulpit, altar rail and choir stalls are commissioned and delivered.
1876 Revd. Dampier retires.
1885c 12 Apostles and 4 angels given to Church.
1933 The Uunderground Sacristy discovered. Honywood/Waters memorial and Honywood/Philips hatchment installed.
1940 Sept. 16th church bombed. NW corner and aisle destroyed, tower damaged. Most of stained glass demolished.
1954 – 1956 Church rebuilt and restored under aegis of Revd. Norman Brown.
1956 Church re-hallowed at Michaelmas.
2000 Two bells added to the peal making it the heaviest in the country.
2002 New extension with meeting rooms, kitchen and other facilities opened by the Archdeacon of Colchester.
2009 Carving and installation of new organ casingby a Coggeshall woodcarver who gave the carved panels, which he’d crafted, as a farewell present to St. Peter’s when he retired to the north of England.
2015 Completion of organ rebuild.
2016 A new sound and vision system was installed. The storm drains were replaced to stop the erosion of the foundations and the movement of the North East corner of the building.
2017 The North and South aisles and the Nave were redecorated, and a new lighting system to highlight the apostles in the Nave roof area was completed.
Entering the church there is a welcoming atmosphere created by light and space due to the plain walls which have replaced the previous Victorian stencilled pattern. These are emphasised by clear glazing in many windows happily relieved by fragments of the original stained glass. Gone too is the rood screen which separated choir and clergy from the congregation. The only remined of how it used to look is the bolt hole in the chancel floor where the gats were once secured!
A recent enhancement has been the installation of the beautiful bronze stations of the cross.
The Cache
The cache is not at the listed coordinates but you will need to go there to work out the final location. Take ‘note’ of a small brass plaque at the listed coordinates. Look for a date which follows the Latin words ‘me fecit’. Give this date the letters ABCD and then work out the final location by inserting the numbers into the following:
N51 52.(A+A)(D-A)D E000 41.(D+A)(B+3)C
The cache is a short walk away, or if you are feeling lazy you can drive there! You will need to bring your own pen as there isn’t one in the container. You are looking for a camouflaged specimen tube.
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If you would like to add to the Church Micro series yourself then please look here
http://churchmicro.co.uk/
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page that can be found at
http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html
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