St Mary's Church, Mundon

St Mary’s Church stands in the quiet village of Mundon, Essex, on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon church beside St Peter’s Way, an old pilgrim route. The present building dates mainly from the 14th century, with a 16th-century timber belfry tower and a 17th-century north porch. The church sits within the moat of Mundon Hall, and fragments of a 13th-century font once stood inside. After falling into disrepair in the 17th century it was rebuilt in brick, and again damaged by a wartime V-bomb in the 1940s. The church is recognised as a Grade I listed building and is now cared for by the Friends of Friendless Churches. A 999-year lease was granted in 1975, followed by repairs funded partly by a £140,000 grant from English Heritage. Services moved to St Mary’s in Maldon in 1974, but an annual service still takes place here. Since 2009 the building has been open to visitors, offering a rare chance to see a redundant medieval church preserved in its original setting. Inside, the nave holds a complete set of 18th-century box pews and an octagonal pulpit. The chancel walls carry painted texts of the Ten Commandments and the Creed, while above the east window a trompe l’oeil mural shows curtains drawn back with tassels. The nave walls are plastered stone rubble, the chancel brick, and the tower aisle timber-framed under a weatherboarded belfry. Red-tiled roofs complete the modest but complete early modern interior.