St. Peter & St. Paul, St. Osyth
St. OSYTH (St. Peter & St. Paul) - The parish church is outside of the abbey precinct, south east of the priory chuch. It has a large nave, with brick piers and arches, and gives the impression of being North German rather than English. Together with the aisles, the nave dates from the early 16th, century. It has a hammerbeam roof, and the aisles have flat roofs. On the north side the beams are moulded, and on the south they are richly foliated. The responds of a tall and wide chancel arch suggest that a new chancel was contemplated. However, it was not built, and much lower and narrower arches, which were probably intended to be temporary, connect the Tudor nave with the older church which dates from the 13th. century and had a chance and long transepts, with east chapels or an aisle, which, in the 16th. century were shortened because the Perpendicular style did not like side excrescences. The chancel is still that of the 13th. century, with a locked south window, and the transepts still have thin east piers that carry triple-chamfered arches. They are circular, and those north have four attached shafts, and those south have eight. The west wall contains the south respond of a Norman arcade, and is plain, with a simple capital. Viewed from the outside, two 13th. windows still survive, although their mullions and tracery have been lost. The east window is Perpendicular with an unusual pattern of tracery, and in the east wall of the south transept are two early 14th century windows. The north and south aisle windows are of the latest Perpendicular, and have four lights, with depressed heads and simple tracery panels. The south aisle and south porch are of red brick, but the north aisle is faced with flint and septaria, and the window orders are of flint and red brick. The aisle is probably of post-Reformation date, but the west tower was in existence when the nave and aisle were built, and was probably attached to the Norman nave in the 14th. century. It has big angle buttresses with three set-offs, and battlements. In the 16th. century a connection, including a squinch, was made between the south aisle, and the stair-turret.
The Font is octagonal with panels containing a head of St. John, and angels holding a shield, etc.
The Plate is a large Cup and Paten of 1574.
Monuments In the chancel, facing each other, and almost indentical in design are two standing wall monuments dating from about 1580, and commemorating the 1st. and 2nd. Lord Darcy and their wives. The alabaster and marble tomb-chest has recumbent effigies with the husband behind, and a little higher than the wife. The background is restrained with no columns, and no strapwork. In the south chapel is a recess containg a tomb-chest with a recumbent alabaster effigy. It is signed by Fr. Grigs and commemorates John Darcy (1638). Against the back wall is a brass plate inscribed Lucy Countess of Rochford (1773). There is also a standing wall-monument with a straight-sided sarcophagus, and two urns, but there is no effigy. It is signed by William Tyler.
