Heritage Open Day: St James the Great is a beautiful Grade II* listed Anglo-Catholic church situated in an imposing position. It is a house of worship and of historical, architectural and artistic interest being a repository of Colchester's heritage. There has been a church on this site for 900 years. The chancel and its chapels were described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as 'the best Perpendicular work in Colchester' and date to the period 1450-1500. It has historical associations with the radical preacher John Ball who was one of the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. The churchyard was used to hold Royalist soldiers who surrendered to the Parliamentarian army at the end of the Siege of Colchester in 1648.