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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 early history of 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

Available at this venue:

• Wheelchair-accessible entrance
• Wheelchair-accessible seating
• Wheelchair-accessible parking

Accessibility information supplied by Google Maps. Please contact the venue directly to confirm details for your visit.