Part 1 of the history of Laindon's churches begins with St Nicholas, the ancient parish church and the strongest surviving link with medieval Laindon.
St Nicholas Church stands on Church Hill and is the oldest surviving place of worship associated with Laindon. A church occupied the site in the medieval period, and the present building contains fabric from several different centuries. Historic England describes it as being built mainly in the fourteenth century on the site of a Norman church, with some earlier work surviving inside.
The church was formally listed on 24 March 1950 and is now protected at Grade I, the highest grade used for listed buildings in England. Its importance comes not only from its age but from the survival of unusual medieval construction and fittings in an area where much of the older landscape has disappeared.
The walls contain ragstone rubble and puddingstone, together with old brick and tile. The building was altered over many generations rather than constructed in one campaign, so the church preserves a mixture of early and later medieval work.
One of St Nicholas's most distinctive features is its weatherboarded timber west tower. Historic England identifies it as a fine example of an Essex timber-framed tower and dates it to the first half of the fourteenth century. Heavy framing and braces support the tower, above which rises the familiar shingled spire.
Local church research records Richard de List as the first known rector in 1254. The list of medieval rectors provides evidence that St Nicholas was already an established parish church many centuries before modern Laindon developed around the railway and High Road.
Attached to the church is the timber-framed building traditionally known as the Priest's House. It became particularly important in the nineteenth century because it was used for early organised education in Laindon.
From around 1837 the Priest's House became associated with Puckle's School. James Hornsby was its best-known schoolmaster and taught generations of local children. As the population and educational needs grew, the tiny accommodation became inadequate and a purpose-built school later opened on Church Hill.
Like many medieval parish churches, St Nicholas required repeated repair and restoration. Work in the nineteenth century preserved the building for a changing population, while later twentieth-century fundraising helped maintain the roof and other parts of the fabric.
By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the parish around St Nicholas was changing rapidly. New residents arrived after the railway opened and plotland development spread across the district. The old parish church increasingly served a population very different from the small rural community for which it had originally been built.