TIPTREE 986/0/10050 ST LUKE'S CHURCH 11-SEP-03 II Church. Consecrated 1856 with minor later alterations, and 1975 extension not included in the listing. Ewan Christian [1814-1895]. Red brick with blue brick banding. Red tile roof with blue tile banding. Caen stone dressings. English Decorated Style. PLAN: Wide nave of 5 bays, with wide aisles to both sides. Nave terminates in 5-sided apsidal end, south aisle in the chapel. EXTERIORS: WEST end with wide gable sloping to include side aisles. Central window with reticulated tracery comprising 5 trefoil headed lights and multiple quatrefoils under pointed arch, flanked by pair of buttresses with stone copings and single trefoil headed lights to each aisle. Wooden belfry with pitched roof. NORTH elevation with deep sloping roof to western most bays, 3 rectangular cross-like windows with pair of trefoil headed lancets below trefoils. East of centre, tall gable with central window of 3 pointed trefoil headed lights and quatrefoils within ogivals under pointed arch. To eastern end, advanced single storey vestry to end bay with 2 trefoil headed lights and quatrefoil in flush stone surrounds, tall chimney stack to centre. EAST end with 5-sided apse under segmental roof, each bay with an attenuated window with rounded trefoil headed light and quatrefoil. SOUTH elevation with deep sloping roof to west end and tall gable with central window, similar to North elevation, but shorter and with catslide roof to east incorporating door with ogee head and window with 2 trefoil headed lights and quatrefoil. Original entrance to west end of this elevation with original porch removed and now incorporated into large 1970s extension from south west corner INTERIOR: Ceiling with wood ribs and 3 king post trusses. Chevron brick detailing below nave ceiling. Red and yellow banded brick arches and piers with stone capitals to nave arcade. West windows destroyed in 1942 bomb blast and replaced in 1951 by design of A.K. Nicholson. South aisle single lancet of Our Lady holding Baby Jesus, 1908. To West end, 5 stone panels with the Ten Commandments, the Lords Prayer and the Apostles Creed. Stone font. Pulpit by Ernest Geldhart, 1906. Oak Choir stalls of 1934 by Bryan Saunders of Coggeshall. East end window of 5 lights depicting life of Christ with brick and stone pointed arch headers. Brown and black tile floor. Original wooden pews. SOURCES: Chelmsford Chronicle. 24 October 1856. A relatively unaltered Church of 1856 by Ewan Christian with contemporary fittings and later insertions of good quality, and a harmonious use of polychromy to the brickwork, tiles roof and nave arcade.