More information : A free chapel in the castle is mentioned before 1326 and later in the Patent Rolls (1). Its site recently discovered is at the west end of the bailey. Dated to circa 1300 with 15th c. alterations (2). (1-2)
Site of the chapel has been located by excavation to TL 66471440. A chapel is recorded at Pleshey Castle between 1180 and 1503, at which time the free chapel was transferred to St Peter's, Westminster. This probably marks the end of the chapel as an ecclesiatical building. The excavations found three phases of building on the chapel site:
The earliest feature, of timber construction, was a tower which may have been ecclesiastical or defensive, and this may be post-1140 to the late 12th century. This was replaced by a timber building aligned East-West, presumably a chapel, which was demolished in the mid 13th century. This in turn was replaced by a stone chapel from the mid-13th to early 14th century which went out of use in the early 16th century. (3)
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