St Thomas' Chapel (1221)

License to found the Chapel of St Thomas was given in 1221, and presumably building work began around this time. This was strictly under the rule that regular church services, baptisms, and other rights still belonged to the church in South Weald. This is why St Thomas' is referred to as a chapel, since it did not originally have the same rights as a parish church.

By 1232 it must have been in a somewhat finished state, as the disgraced Justicar of England, Hubert de Burgh, sought sanctuary in the chapel while trying to flee the country.

Around 1350 the chapel was rebuilt, and towards the end of the 1300s the tower was added on - possibly under the supervision of the first recorded chaplain, John Hylond. This rebuilding probably expanded the chapel for the growing town, and coincided with the founding of a chantry, which was funded by the Duke of York among others. It is very unusual for a small provincial chapel to have a chantry founded by a member of the royal family, and it is unclear why Brentwood was singled out for this. The chantry was called 'Salles Chauntery' in the Patent Rolls of 1402.

The rebuilt church had three entrances, one on the south side - which at least by the 1700s was next to the vicarage - one on the west side under a great window, and the most important one on the north side where it opened into the high street.

In 1440 there was a breakthrough for the independence of Brentwood - the townspeople appealed to the pope saying that they were unable to get to South Weald church for services during bad weather and requested that Brentwood chapel could hold services during bad weather. This was granted, and the chapel finally began to function a little more like a parish church.

At the disolution the monestary of St Osyths was dissolved, and the chapel was given to Thomas Cromwell along with a large amount of property and land nearby. At the fall of Cromwell it reverted to the crown, but was again gifted to John Cocke and his wife Anne - they seem to have then sold it to Sir Anthony Browne.

There is evidence that the church was modernised regularly. In the 16th century the east window was rebuilt as a large new window with brick tracery, and the west door made smaller. In the 1619 the tie beam was renewed and therefore possibly the roof was rebuilt. And as the population continued to grow, galleries were inserted (the west window bricked up to accomodate them) and new dormer windows opened in the roof to let in more light. In 1715 a font was erected to allow baptisms.

From at least the 17th century there were regular burials in the grounds around the chapel. This seems to have continued into the 18th century with some gravestones still being visible on the north side of the chapel in the 1860s. The gravestones were cleared when the ruined church was converted into a garden a few years later, however the bodies were not removed and remain in the ground around the ruins.

In the 1830s it was finally decided that the old chapel was too small and a new church was built on the site of a nearby garden nursery. For some reason it was decided not to demolish the old church, and instead it was converted to a school - an unusual decision at a time when old buildings were normally pulled down when they were no longer wanted.

The change to a school may have meant that the old windows were taken out and replaced, as in the new church of 1835 there were several fragments of "old glass" from the medieval chapel preserved in the windows there. An old brass grave marker for John Parker was also removed to the new church. Meanwhile, the old church had a new wooden floor laid down over the old stone one, but otherwise it remained unchanged until 1869. There was also recorded in 1865 a "rude image of the titular saint carved in wood" still surviving in the chapel.

Geroge Buckler, visiting it as a school in the 1850s, noted "great credit is due to the authorities whose care protects this relic from further injury by the boys collected within its walls." Mr and Mrs T. Robinson were the master and mistress of the school at that time.

Unfortunately, this protection did not last. In 1869 the school was closed and the old church was largely demolished, the remaining fragments as we see them now were left as a picturesque ruin.