Colchester No. 6 / Colecastro / Colecestra

There are seventeen entries for Colchester [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL9925/colchester/] [accessed 8 June 2018]; a priest is mentioned as lord three times (two in 1066, one in 1086) and "0.5 church lands" is noted in one of the entries, but none of them mentions a church, though there must have some there at the time. The entry for this borough in the Victoria County History (Essex, vol. 9, 1994) notes: "The church, on the north side of Hythe Hill, was recorded c. 1150 when Maurice de Haie gave the church of 'Hethe' to St. John's abbey who still held the advowson in 1227. [...] An earlier church comprising nave and chancel was enlarged c. 1335 by the building of the north aisle and the rebuilding of the chancel; the considerable difference in alignment between the nave and chancel suggests that the new chancel replaced an earlier one on faulty foundations. The west tower of three stages was built in the late 14th century and in the early 15th the embattled south aisle and porch were added. The 15th-century south door with contemporary hinges and knocker plate survived in 1983. [...] The building, a royalist stronghold, was stormed by parliamentary soldiers in the siege of 1648. [...] It was repaired in 1662 and a brick font installed. [...] The brick font of 1662 was broken up in 1840, buried in the north chapel, and replaced by the 15th-century font from East Donyland church." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) report that "a brick font of 1662" was replaced ca. 1840 by a font brought from the demolished church of East Donyland. The entry for this former church in Historic England [List entry Number: 1123578] reports an "Octagonal C15 font originally in East Donyland church, brought to St Leonards in 1840."