In 2023, the team at St Mary’s engaged local Essex based artist Steve Lawes to create a reconstruction of our damaged Doom Painting with the help of a grant from the Cottam Will Trust.

However the tantalising glimpses of what remains of the St Mary's Doom presented several significant challenges before work could even begin on an artistic reconstruction.

The fragments of painting that remained offered some clues, as did the previous conservation reports, the extensive research carried out by local historical researcher John Frankland and the visual evidence provided by other better preserved Doom paintings across the UK. Pieced together, an idea of what the painting may have once looked like began to form.

But questions still remained. The faded remnants of paint dotted around the church give little idea of the vivid and colourful palette that would once have adorned most of the walls, arches and columns and, yet more frustratingly, there were many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that were entirely missing.

Steve turned to academic colleagues for support, with Medieval manuscripts specialist Sara Charles providing both advice on colour palette and even some of the necessary pigments and brushes in order to make the reproduction as historically authentic as possible. Members of the ‘Medieval Wall Paintings’ Research Group, hosted by The Courtauld Institute of Art also gave invaluable insights into similar artworks to use as points of comparison and inspiration.

After a fantastically intense period of research and painting, our authentically produced ‘Doom’ painting reconstruction was finally ready. It was revealed with great delight at our candlelit Medieval concert with the Colchester Waits and is now proudly displayed on a permanent basis at the Church. Such was the interest in the authenticity of Steve’s methodology and hand produced pigments, the painting was even featured in an article in the Telegraph. The full article is available online with a subscription here or view a pdf of the article.