Last Christmas my brother had sponsored an elephant for me and once I’d filled in the registration form I received a free ticket to Colchester Zoo, which then became the focus of a few days away in Essex. Opened in 1963 it now cares for over 260 different species over 60 acres of parkland and lakes.
As a follow-up to part one, this post is focusing on some of Coggeshall’s religous buildings, past and present. The first of these is Christ Church (previously known as the Congregational Church). Built in 1710 by Independents, some of whom had been ejected from the Church of England, by 1989 it had combined with the Methodist and Baptist churches.
Grange Barn is a National Trust property in Coggeshall which we visited on the same day as Paycocke’s House, as the Trust advises. It’s an odd attraction for the Trust but interesting in its own way, reputedly one of Europe’s largest and oldest timber-framed buildings, dating from 1230.
On a recent trip away we based ourselves in Coggeshall as a convenient place to stay for a visit to Colchester Zoo (blog post to follow). To our surprise we found it to have many interesting buildings and places to visit in its own right (including two National Trust properties – Paycocke’s House and Garden and the Grange Barn) and what was quoted to me as being over 200 listed buildings.
Paycocke’s House and Garden is a National Trust property in Coggeshall, Essex. The house was built in 1509 by Thomas Paycocke, a wealthy cloth merchant, one of the richest men in Coggeshall. The wool Paycocke produced, known as Coggeshall white, was said to be one of the best cloths in the country.
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