The Colchester Archaeologist 2002 - Colchester Archaeological Trust

St John's Abbey
explored
St John's Abbey was an important
feature of medieval Colchester, yet
thanks to Henry VIII, little now
remains above ground. All that
survives of the abbey is most of the
precinct wall, the 15th-century
gatehouse, part of a porter's lodge,
and lots of fragments of worked
stone in many of the more modern
buildings in and around the site of
the abbey.
Nothing is known about the buildings of
the abbey except for the church which,
fortunately, is depicted in a medieval
drawing (see page 25). The illustration
shows a substantial building with a large
central tower rather like the one at
Norwich cathedral, and a west front
apparently flanked by two round towers.
Interestingly, the drawing shows the
south side of the church, and thus it
appears to suggest that the cloisters and
most of the other monastic buildings
were to the north of the church. Not
only would this have been an unusual
arrangement, but it seems to contradict
the early history of the abbey where it is
stated that the monastic buildings were
relocated on the south side of the church
after the abbey burnt down in 1133.
The abbey was founded in 1095 by
the Norman baron Eudo Dapifer on the
site of an earlier church dedicated to
St John. From the beginning the abbey
was protected by a high wall. The
impressive 15th-century gatehouse on
the town side of the abbey is relatively
late, but it was presumably a rebuilt
version of an earlier gate. Another gate
may have existed on the south side of
the precinct (see page 24), its site being
on the west side of the modern Flagstaff
House on Napier Road.
The abbey closed in 1538 as part of
Henry Vlll's attack on monasticism and
the Catholic Church. The abbot, John
Beche, vigorously opposed the termination
of the abbey and was hanged as a
result. He is said to have resisted the
closure and to have hidden the abbey's
valuable plate. The monks were evicted
and the abbey buildings and land sold
off. The monastic buildings were largely
destroyed as the estate quickly passed
through the hands of several owners.
The estate ended up in the ownership of
the Lucas family, who built a mansion
for themselves probably incorporating
parts of the ruined abbey. The mansion
was demolished about a hundred years
later in 1 648 as a result of the Siege of
Colchester, when the Royalists
used the walled precinct
as a bulwark against the
Parliamentarians who were
besieging the town.
Top left: Abbot Blyton's seal (14th
century), published in the Book of
Colchester.
Above: St John's Abbey precinct in
1748.
Below: part of the first page of the
cartulary of St John's Abbey, with the
initial 'E' for Eudo Dapifer.
(Seal and cartulary reproduced courtesy
of Colchester Museums.)
Below: a view of St John's Green in 2001 looking towards St John's
Abbey gatehouse.
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