Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 1402: summary

Historic building recording of the precinct wall of St John’s Abbey along Flagstaff Road, Colchester, Essex, CO2 7EZ: October 2018
by Mark Baister

Date report completed: April 2019
Location: St John’s Abbey, Flagstaff Road, Colchester, Essex, CO2 7EZ
Map reference(s): TL 99671 24682 (centre)
File size: kb
Project type: Historic Building Recording
Significance of the results:
Keywords:

Summary. A programme of historic building recording was carried out by Colchester Archaeological Trust of the precinct wall of St John’s Abbey along Flagstaff Road, Colchester, Essex in October 2018.

Like the rest of the circuit, this section of wall has been heavily altered and repaired since its construction in the late 11th-/early 12th-century. Large segments have been replaced entirely by brickwork and it has lost a metre or more in height. Of the surviving fabric nothing remains that can be confidentially identified as the original medieval face of the wall. Several sections have been refaced in the post-medieval period, incorporating worked ragstone from the demolished abbey into the walls makeup.