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34-562: The Colchester Arts Centre , is an arts centre in Colchester , Essex , which is located in a former Church of England parish church , the church of Saint Mary-at-the-Walls , a name derived from its proximity to the Roman town walls . The church may have had Anglo-Saxon origins but was first mentioned in the early 13th century. The building was badly damaged during the English Civil War and

68-726: A Sanctus bell . The pipe organ , originally built in 1881 by A. Hunter & Son , was rebuilt and restored by Percy Daniel & Co of Clevedon and installed at Brentwood Cathedral . The empty church building was converted to an arts centre, opening its doors in 1980. It is the venue for a variety of artistic, entertainment and community events, including live music, comedy and a regular farmers' market . A focus on emerging talent has resulted in early performances by bands including Coldplay , The Libertines , Ash , The Killers , and The Strokes and comedians Eddie Izzard , Graham Norton , Harry Hill , Catherine Tate , Jo Brand , Bill Bailey , and Jack Dee . In 2018, Colchester Arts Centre

102-470: A frieze of shields around the base, still visible today. The rectors of St Mary's appear to have supported the Protestant Reformation ; records show that they sold off the church's silver-gilt pyx and other accoutrements in 1534 and removed stained glass windows in 1548. One rector was fined in 1544 for failing to read out the king's statutes and for living with a woman, while in 1554 during

136-427: A trench is enfiladed if the opponent can fire down the length of the trench. A column of marching troops is enfiladed if fired on from the front or rear such that the projectiles travel the length of the column. A rank or line of advancing troops is enfiladed if fired on from the side (from the flank). The advantages of enfilading missiles have been appreciated since antiquity , whether in pitched battles such as

170-419: A hill or within a depression in level or rolling terrain. Defiladed positions on hilltops are advantageous because "dead space" – a space that cannot be engaged with direct fire – will be created in front of the position. Ideally, this dead space should be covered by the interlocking fields of fire of other nearby positions, and/or by pre-planned indirect fire such as mortars or other forms of artillery . In

204-637: A military formation's exposure to enemy fire. A formation or position is "in enfilade" if weapon fire can be directed along its longest axis. A unit or position is "in defilade" if it uses natural or artificial obstacles to shield or conceal itself from enfilade and hostile fire. The strategies, named by the English during the Hundred Years' War , use the French enfiler ("to put on a string or sling") and défiler ("to slip away or off") spoken by English nobility of

238-472: A new chancel and south chapel were built first, and then the rest of the old church buildings, except the tower, were demolished and rebuilt in red and black brick to the design of Arthur Blomfield . The upper part of the tower, which was damaged in the 1884 Colchester earthquake , was rebuilt in 1911, along with the addition of new choir stalls and the cladding of Blomfield's cast iron columns in terra cotta . Subsequent alterations included adding an apse to

272-615: A programme of enabling access to wheelchair users and disabled individuals and groups. In the rest of Europe it is common among most art centres that they are partly government funded, since they are considered to have a positive influence on society and economics according to the Rhineland model philosophy. Many of those organisations started in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s as squatted spaces and were later legalized. Italy Palestine Enfilade and defilade Enfilade and defilade are concepts in military tactics used to describe

306-403: Is delivered so that the long axis of the target coincides or nearly coincides with the long axis of the beaten zone. A unit or position is "in defilade" if it uses natural or artificial obstacles to shield or conceal. For an armored fighting vehicle (AFV), defilade is synonymous with a hull-down or turret-down position. Defilade is also used to refer to a position on the reverse slope of

340-649: The Battle of Taginae or in fortifications designed to provide the defenders with opportunities to enfilade attacking forces. Although sophisticated archery tactics grew rare in Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages , enfilade fire was reemphasized by the late medieval English using ranked archers combined with dismounted knights, first employed at the Battle of Dupplin Moor in 1332 and used to devastating effect against

374-736: The Marian persecutions , another married rector of St Mary's had to leave the town before the arrival of Bishop Edmund Bonner 's inquisitors. Another rector, Hugh Allen , left Colchester in 1572 to join the English forces in Ireland during the First Desmond Rebellion and was appointed Bishop of Down and Connor . The Siege of Colchester began in June 1648 during the Second English Civil War when

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408-512: The Bluecoat Society of Arts was founded in Liverpool in 1927 following the efforts of a group of artists and art lovers who had occupied Bluecoat Chambers since 1907. Most British art centres began after World War II and gradually changed from mainly middle-class places to 1960s and 1970s trendy , alternative centres and eventually in the 1980s to serving the whole community with

442-618: The French in the Hundred Years War . The benefit of enfilading an enemy formation is that, by firing along the long axis, it becomes easier to hit targets within that formation. Enfilade fire takes advantage of the fact that it is usually easier to aim laterally ( traversing the weapon) than to correctly estimate the range to avoid shooting too long or short. Additionally, both indirect and direct fire projectiles that might miss an intended target are more likely to hit another valuable target within

476-407: The case of antitank weapons, and especially short-range man-portable antitank rockets, defiladed positions behind a hill have several important advantages. This is because the dead space created by the intervening crest of the hill prevents an approaching tank from using the range of its direct-fire weapons, and neither the attacker nor defender will have a clear shot until the tank is within range of

510-477: The church bell tower. Under the command of a one-eyed master gunner called Thompson, they hoisted a brass saker (a small cannon firing a 5.25 pounds (2.38 kg) ball) into St Mary's tower, where it was mounted on a platform built over the bell-frames. From that position, the Royalist gunners could enfilade the besiegers trenches, and even reach Fairfax's headquarters at Lexden , more than 1 mile (1.6 km) down

544-507: The church is obscure, but excavations in 1962 to the south of the present churchyard revealed some burial cists dated to before the Norman conquest . It was possibly the location of a private chapel for the Bishops of London who owned land in the town. The first record of the church was in a lease of 1206 in which the bishop retained the advowson , the right to appoint the rector , a tradition which

578-399: The defending antitank weapon. In such engagements the tank is usually at a further disadvantage because the defender will often be camouflaged while the attacking tank will be silhouetted against the sky, giving the defender an easier shot. In addition, if the tank fails to detect the defending antitank weapon while the tank is still defiladed, but advances beyond that position to the crest of

612-409: The formation if firing along the long axis. When planning field and other fortifications, it became common for mutually supporting positions to be arranged so that it became impossible to attack any one position without exposing oneself to enfilading fire from the others, this being found for example in the mutually supporting bastions of star forts , and the caponiers of later fortifications. Fire

646-404: The hill, it may expose the relatively thinner armor of its lower hull or belly to the defender. Early detection and elimination of antitank threats is an important reason that tanks attack with infantry support. Artificial entrenchments can provide defilade by allowing troops to seek shelter behind a raised berm that increases the effective height of the ground, within an excavation that allows

680-411: The modern suggestion that this event is the origin of the nursery rhyme , Humpty Dumpty . The building's role in the siege has been commemorated in the play Bury Me In Colchester Mud , a contemporary piece written by local playwright Dr. Paul T. Davies, that follows a family hiding in church during the siege. In the aftermath of the siege, the church building was in a ruinous state and although it

714-530: The road to London. To counter this threat, the Parliamentarians established a battery of heavier cannons and began to fire on St Mary's on 24 July, with the result that the Royalists began to withdraw their guns from the churchyard. On the following day, the Parliamentarians succeeded in partially demolishing the church tower, dislodging the saker and killing Thompson in the process. There is no evidence to support

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748-638: The south chapel as a war memorial in 1922, a rood mounted on a beam in the south chapel in 1931, new vestries in 1936 and the plastering over of Blomfield's decorative interior brickwork in 1938. St Mary's was made a Grade II listed building in 1950. The construction of a ring road around Colchester in the 1970s resulted in Balkerne Hill being converted into a busy dual carriageway , which separated St Mary's from much of its parish. A chapel of ease for St Mary's had been opened in Ireton Road in 1904, which

782-470: The time. Enfilade fire—gunfire directed against an enfiladed formation or position—is also commonly known as "flanking fire". Raking fire is the equivalent term in naval warfare . Strafing , firing on targets from a flying platform, is often done with enfilade fire. It is a very advantageous, and much sought for, position for the attacking force. A formation or position is "in enfilade" if weapon fire can be directed along its longest axis. For instance,

816-515: The town, which had largely supported parliament against the king, was seized by a Royalist force led by the Earl of Norwich and was besieged there by a Parliamentarian force led by Sir Thomas Fairfax , who surrounded the town with artillery batteries and entrenchments. The Royalist defenders established an artillery battery in St Mary's churchyard to fire over the town wall, directed by observers on top of

850-470: The troops to shelter below the surface of the ground or a combination of the two. The same principles apply to fighting positions for artillery and armored fighting vehicles. A unit sited in defilade threatens an enemy that decides to pass it and move forward, because the enemy would be put in an enfiladed position when moving in a rank. The friendly unit would be in a position that is shielded by terrain from direct enemy fire, while still being able to fire on

884-496: The wealthier districts of Colchester being closer to the port at The Hythe, so priests tended not to stay long. In 1440, a papal dispensation was received for the rector of St Mary's to hold the benefice of a second parish, a custom which continued until the 19th century. The medieval church building had a nave , a chancel , a south porch and a northwest tower, which was rebuilt in 1534 using rubble masonry containing Roman bricks , finished with limestone dressings, which included

918-478: Was Thomas Twining from the famous family of tea merchants , who was noted for translating works by Aristotle ; he was rector at St Mary's from 1788 until his death in 1804. By 1851, the Sunday services at St Mary's were attended by some 400 people. A new and energetic rector, John William Irvine, was appointed in 1870 and set about the rebuilding of the church to accommodate these large congregations. Starting in 1872,

952-545: Was a corrugated iron building or " tin tabernacle ", dedicated to Saint Saviour . This building was replaced by a modern brick and slate church designed by Bryan Thomas , which was dedicated to Christ Church and St Mary on 5 March 1978, and the old church was closed. The only bell from the church, cast in 1679, was put in storage at the Church of St Leonard at the Hythe and was finally installed at St Mary's Church, Prittlewell in 2010 as

986-642: Was awarded £499,000 by the Arts Council England for a major refurbishment project to enhance accessibility for deaf and disabled artists and audiences, and to improve energy efficiency and technical infrastructure. Arts centre In the United States , "art centers" are generally either establishments geared toward exposing, generating, and making accessible art making to arts-interested individuals, or buildings that rent primarily to artists, galleries, or companies involved in art making. In Britain ,

1020-493: Was completed in only ten months at a cost of £1,154, excluding the cost of furnishings and external paving. A further £65 17s 4d was spent in levelling the churchyard and making gravel paths lined with lime trees which Morant says were "much resorted to" by the locals. At the same time, the ancient "low and inconvenient" postern gate in the Roman wall which gave access to the churchyard was enlarged and stone steps were added. The tower

1054-423: Was fully rebuilt twice in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the exception of the 16th century bell tower which has been heavily restored. The church became redundant in 1978 and opened as an arts centre in 1980. It hosts a wide variety of events, specialising in emerging talent, with a number of well known artists having made early appearances at the venue. It is a Grade II listed building . The early history of

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1088-443: Was initially still used for weddings and baptisms, the congregation held their regular services at the neighbouring church of Holy Trinity until 1714 when St Mary's was rebuilt. The new building, consisting of a small chancel, a nave with aisles and a west gallery, was described by local antiquarian Philip Morant as "plain, neat... but not so substantial as others of its kind". It was designed by John Price of Richmond, Surrey and

1122-452: Was maintained until the church closed in 1978. The same lease also includes a school in the parish, which has been taken as the origin of Colchester Royal Grammar School . Dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin , the church acquired its sobriquet " ad murum " or "at-the-walls" to distinguish it from the church dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene in the western end of the town. The parish was poor,

1156-436: Was still a ruin in 1722 when Daniel Defoe visited the town, but it was finally repaired in brick in 1729, although plans to surmount it with a cupola and stone pineapples came to nothing, the rather plain result being described by Morant as "both heavy and ugly as possible". Morant became the rector in 1737, a post which he held until he died in 1770, although he latterly lived in his second parish at Aldham . Another rector

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