The Road Goes Ever On

Friday, July 12, 2019

Coggeshall And The Paycocke House, 1

The next day, July 5th, was to be another three-sight day: the Paycocke House in Coggeshall, Long Meldon House and Garden, and the Long Meldon Church, our first 5-star parish church. Coggeshall is a pretty little town, its Medieval lay-out and many old houses surviving to this day. Its height was in the later Middle Ages, when the English wool industry was thriving. The oldest and best known of Coggeshall's buildings is the Paycocke House, where Thomas Paycocke and wife, wealthy wool merchants, lived and worked. That the house survived, was revived, and ultimately became a National Trust property was the work of several dedicated individuals. This is perhaps the smallest Trust property we have seen, but it will still take two posts to do it justice.

15th and 16th century carving all over

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The house's story--the stories of Paycocke and family, and
of its 20th century revival--are told via these nice woolen
sheets (click to enlarge)

Interior shots of the main dwelling

The furniture is not original, of course, but period

Not sure of Eileen Power's connection, but it's a good story; a Medievalist who
attended Cambridge on a cloth-maker scholarship and went on to further
distinction

Thursday, July 11, 2019

St. John's Church, Thaxted, Essex

After Audley End, we were driving through Essex to an overnight car park in Braintree, passing through Thaxted, and noticed its beautiful St. John's church, which turned out to be a 4-star Jenkins church, dating from the earlier 1300s.

Vicki before the great steeple at Thaxted...

Interestingly, the church was being set up for a musical concert, the stage at the
rear, with the seats facing it and not the altar

Beautiful timbered ceiling

Carvings all over

Said to be 13th century German

Angel hovering from the ceiling

Bell ringing apparatus

Lots of more or less defaced gargoyles

Funny faces...I mean, grotesques

Thaxted also has a windmill

Fuller view

Pretty town

Happy Birthday balloon ride

Audley End House And Garden

After a night in a quiet layby near Barton, and a stop at a Cambridge "superstore," we continued our tour of East Anglia, now (July 4^th) on to Audley End House and Garden, near Saffon Walden, Sussex. Audley End is owned and managed by English Heritage, another cultural non-profit. The distinction between English Heritage and the National Trust is, broadly, that English Heritage does the ruins, castles and abbeys and such, and National Trust does the "live" buildings, those still intact (mostly) and furnished and that you can still visit and in which people (remaining lords and ladies with sharp lawyers) still live (parts of them; the houses). But there are exceptions, and Audley End is one of three "live" houses done by English Heritage. Did I mention that on our British campaigns we generally become members of the National Trust, English Heritage, and the Camping and Caravanning Club? Given our interests, and the entrance fees, these memberships pay for themselves rather quickly. The organizations do not envisage Americans spending weeks or months in the UK visiting houses and gardens and ruins and such. Anyhow, after WWII, Audley came to the government (it had already been used as an army base) and eventually to English Heritage, and thus to all of us. It was a superb visit, with a garden tour, the butler's pantry private tour, and the house tour. Two caveats: 1) no fotos in the house, and 2) if you're in a motor-home, you'll have to get to the car park via its exit; the main entrance has 9'6" height limit.