Long Melford Hall

We drove on, bypassing Short and Medium Melford, arriving before lunch at Long Melford, to see the Hall there and also the 5-star Long Melford parish church. The Hall was an Elizabethan treat, and a greater treat for us was its association with Beatrix Potter, whom we know as a writer and illustrator of classic children's books, but also as one of the earliest and most important supporters of the National Trust. She was a shrewd businesswoman, had some means, and a vision, and married the very sharp lawyer who assisted her.

Long Melford Hall

Drawing room

Charter, granted by Queen Mary, Henry VIII's daughter

Auction of Long Melford at Christie's (yes, that Christie's),
1785; not all the great houses stay in the same family for
centuries

Beatrix Potter was a family friend/relative who visited often and drew inspiration
from Long Melford

When Long Melford became a military site in WWII, the family stayed with
Potter in her home in the Lake District; great lady

Famous picture of herself sleeping in the four poster bed; note position of the
tail, thought thus to amuse the children

The four poster bed

More Potteriana

A gate house, which in much later years was used as a party house

More Potter

The usual National Trust garden shop (not pictured: all the other usual National Trust
stuff, shoppes, services, etc.)

Another pleasant visit, and, as I said, not without the usual pleasant surprise or
connection

Coggeshall And The Paycocke House, 2

Continuing our visit to the Paycocke House in Coggeshall, Essex...

More of Eileen Power's travels and studies; she did "commit matrimony" later
on

No matter how small, every National Trust house we have visited (since 2009)
has had a reception and membership office, a gift shop, a gardening shop, a
plant shop, a tea shop, a garden, a lawn, chairs, and croquet; some have more,
but the Paycocke House had at least all these

Garden shop

Garden, lawn chairs, and croquet set

The white extension is actually older than the House, dating from the early
1400s; it was the original butchery

Now mostly interpretive exhibits about the Medieval wool industry

And one very interesting painting

Pretty little town, Coggeshall

The "talking bench," on main street is a hoot; press the
button and it gives you a 360 degree narration of the town
center; the other button, more about Essex county

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Coggeshall parish church, one of the approximately 15,990 British parish
churches we will not be visiting this month

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