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September 2, 2022 By Laura Leave a Comment

Paycocke’s House in Essex is one of the finest Tudor merchant’s houses in England. The impressive half-timbered building is stunning from the street, and there is an unexpectedly large garden behind.

Built in 1509 in the small town of Coggeshall, the house was adapted from an existing medieval hall. Paycocke’s House was built for Thomas Paycocke to show off the wealth generated by the cloth trade. The rooms at the front of the house are spectacular, with uncommonly intricate carved woodwork and paneling. Paycocke’s House compares well ​with properties of a similar age in Lavenham, Suffolk.

One of the fascinating aspects is that there are only two families who played a pivotal role in its history. Although others have lived at Paycocke’s during its 500 years, it is only the Paycocke and Buxton family histories that are closely intertwined with this building.

I also learned that Paycocke’s House was the third built property given to the National Trust. 

I know this Essex town as it was where my dad’s family was from. My father lived in Coggeshall until his twenties when he married my mother. As a child, I visited my nan in Coggeshall regularly but I was too young to know the history of the area.

Coggeshall had a thriving cloth trade for many years, and Thomas Paycocke used his property to display his wealth and status. Coggeshall was famous in medieval times for undyed broadcloth – sometimes called Coggeshall White. At one time, Coggeshall was Essex’s second town (second only to Colchester the country town).

Coggeshall is also associated with a type of embroidered net made locally called tambour lace.

Grange Barn (a nearby National Trust property) was already 400 years old when, in 1509, Thomas Paycocke added a new, richly carved and luxurious front wing to the house he inherited from his father three years earlier. This was before the time of Shakespeare, and when Henry VIII only knew one wife (Catherine of Aragon). As Thomas Paycocke inspected the new front of his house, Pope Julius II was inspecting Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine Chapel, a year into the four-year project.

The Paycocke family from Suffolk came to Coggeshall in the mid-15th century. The first few generations were described as butchers but probably the wealthy type of grazier butchers who owned large sheep farms. This would give the family the connection to the wool and cloth trade, as the third generation officially called themselves clothiers.

Thomas Paycocke industrialized woolen cloth manufacturing by employing people instead of relying on a chain of self-supporting artisans. He outsourced production to be completed in the workers’ own premises. This allowed Paycocke’s House itself to be a space to entertain and to impress. And these changes made Thomas Paycocke incredibly wealthy. We don’t think Thomas lived here; he used the property as business premises.

He married Margaret Horrold from another wealthy family. She was from Clare in Suffolk and Thomas had been apprenticed there which was how they likely met. 

The initials of both Thomas and Margaret are carved in several places on the exterior and interior of the house. Margaret died before the couple could have any children and Thomas remarried, but the original initials stayed in place.

Thomas acted as a godparent for many children in the parish and was known as a deeply religious and charitably-minded man. He was a member of the Crutched Friars in Colchester and left money to religious orders in his Will.

At the time of his death in 1518, his second wife, Anne, was pregnant with their first child. As only a male heir could inherit, Thomas’s estate was passed to his nephew, John Paycocke. 2018 marked the 500th anniversary of Thomas’s death.

When John Paycocke died in 1584, Paycocke’s House was sold to the Buxton family who were also Essex clothiers and already owned property in Coggeshall. The house was rented to Roger Ludgater who bought the house from the Buxtons in 1746. It’s thought the property was divided into three cottages but that actually meant up to ten families could have been living here at one time. 

By the Victorian period, there was a brewery in what is now the back garden. And the divided house was in a terrible state of disrepair.

In the 1890s, it was saved from destruction by Charles Pudney when he bought the entire place for £50. The hauler repaired the building and used it as a storehouse. Pudney knew from a local historian about the Buxton ownership so he approached Lord Buxton to buy it from him. 

In 1904 Paycocke’s House was sold to Noel Buxton who later became one of the first Labour peers. He was also a descendant of the Buxton family who had owned the house in previous centuries. Working with a local carpenter and craftsman, Ernest W. Beckworth, and Malden-based architect Percy Beaumont, Buxton embarked on an aggressive restoration of the house. Beckworth did all of the wood carving on the facade under the jetty. They pulled down partitions and removed paint from beams, unveiling original features. 

The house today is the result of this ‘restoration’ phase with the house that Thomas Paycocke might have known peeping through around the edges.

Buxton removed the outbuildings to create garden views from the house. He commissioned Tudor-style furnishings to create what he believed to be an authentic period style of the original house. He added the Buxton family crest over the fireplace and the glass window in the garden room. And the two carved figures for the entrance door fool most into believing their provenance to be much earlier.

During the restoration, Buxton’s cousin, Conrad Noel the ‘Red Vicar of Thaxted’, lived in the building with his wife Miriam. The nickname came from his socialist views. In 1911, around the time that he was living at Paycocke’s, he became a founding member of the British Socialist Party. Both left-wing cousins were clearly followers of fellow Socialist William Morris’s Arts & Crafts movement, evidenced not just in the house, but also in the charming garden put together by Miriam Noel. There is a certain irony in the fact that the house, built by one of the country’s first true capitalists, was saved by such passionate socialists.

In 1923 the composer Gustav Holst visited Paycockes as a friend of Conrad Noel. The composer’s daughter Imogen recorded that the house ‘was a delight’.

After its renovation, in 1924 Noel Buxton donated the property to the National Trust. It was rented to tenants and the last only left in 2008.

On the front of the building, the overhanging jetty has original carvings including vine leaves and figures. Below the jetty is Beckworth’s carvings.

The entrance to Paycocke’s House is via a large, wooden cartway. The cartway was built in the second phase of construction, allowed the transporting of goods in wagons from the road to the yard and Tudor outbuildings at the back of the house. These would have included stables, a dovecote and possibly a kitchen. Tudor kitchens were always separate from the main building due to the risk of fire. The linenfold carved gates are about 8 inches thick.

On either side of the cartway entrance are two carved wooden statues of an open-mouthed fool and a knight (probably St. George) standing atop plinths. They are considered to be the oldest representations of mummers* in England. The knight figure is left-handed – a sign of weakness in the Middle Ages.

* A mummers’ play was the original street theatre of England. In London, The Lions Part performs the October Plenty and Twelfth Night mummers’ plays outside Shakespeare’s Globe each year. Another popular mummer’s play was for St. George and the Dragon.

Apparently, in the late 1400s, Coggeshall had its own established company of mummers of such repute that it was being hired by the nobility for performances. Since Paycocke’s was built between 1509 and 1510 it might not be surprising if a reference was made to well-known, popular mummers from the local community in its architecture. It might even have been the case that the Paycockes were the mummers’ patrons.

Mumming returned to Coggeshall on 22 July 2018 when the Mayflower Morris Men of Billericay performed their mummers’ play, St. George and the Dragon, in the garden at Paycocke’s.

Looking from the garden, you can see the oldest part of the house on the left. 

The oldest part of the house dates to 1410 and served as an open hall. The hall was adapted by Thomas Paycocke to form the core of the house we see today. The rear part of the house has very little decorative carving because it was the front rooms that were used by Thomas Paycocke to impress visitors with his wealth and social standing.

Be aware, it is noticeably cooler inside the house even on a warm day.

The interior of Paycockes is a symphony of beautifully carved wooden beams and linenfold wall paneling, reflecting the wealth generated by the medieval wool trade.

As a clothier, Thomas Paycocke would have been well-traveled across Europe. He would have wanted to impress using the latest fashions within the building. Originally, in 1420, Paycocke’s House formed part of an open medieval hall. But the house Thomas built consisted of five bays and a host of smaller rooms, which led to each other rather than a typical hall-style house. This was fashionable on the continent and Thomas may have been inspired by his business trips.

The Great Hall forms the most decorative part of the 1510 elevation. Look up and see the ornate carvings with Thomas’ and his wife Margaret’s initials on the ceiling. This Hall was used as the main showroom for Thomas’s woolen cloth business and where his high-quality produce would be displayed and sold.

It really is an elaborately carved ceiling and there is a lot of wood – much more than strictly needed so this was designed to impress. 

The Panelled Room has been considerably altered since Thomas Paycocke’s time. There are at least six types of paneling in this room.

This room’s position (adjacent to the Great Hall and to the cartway) would have afforded Thomas a strategic view of the comings and goings of his trade. Therefore, it is likely he used it as a service room and his main business room.

The fireplace was added in 1590 but the mantel is original. In the center, there is a shield with an ermine tail emblem adopted by the Paycockes as their symbol. This emblem would have been stamped on cloth bales as a brand mark. Since the ermine was reputed to be a very clean animal, Paycocke was making a statement about the quality and purity of his cloth. It is interesting that the family did not use the peacock for their emblem, as the family name is from the old English for peacock.

Upstairs, the Great Chamber is the largest room in the building and is displayed as it was probably used in Thomas Paycocke’s time; as an entertaining space and somewhere he could take favoured clients for a meal and a private conversation.

During the later history of the house, this room was used as a bedroom and has possibly been divided in two at some date to create smaller chambers.

Do look up at the honey-coloured wooden ceiling.

The main function of the Anteroom was to provide a waiting area for Thomas Paycocke’s visitors before they entered the splendour of the Great Chamber where they would be entertained. One door leads to the Great Chamber and another to the bedroom beyond.

Today, this room houses some swathes of Coggeshall White, the high-quality woollen fabric which Thomas produced.

Our Guide pointed out the faint outline of a Tudor rose painted on the wall which was a recent discovery.

This room and a jettied attic space above were created at some point later during a second building phase when a fifth bay was added over the cartway. However, it appears to have been planned from the outset.

Changes would have been made to this room when the top floor was removed in the late 16th century and then again when the newer wing was added in the early 17th century. However, the reuse of old and new timbers makes it difficult to determine the exact form of the original Tudor room. Little is known of the purpose of this room, but it is likely to have been used for storage or perhaps as a bedroom.

On display, is a permanent loan from the V&A of a Tudor bed-post.

The Solar room is situated at the south end of what was once a jettied block and is believed to be the only remaining section of John Paycocke’s House dated circa 1420.

A Solar room is normally on an upper floor and has good natural light and would probably be where the owner would retire at night. The word Solar has two possible origins. It may have come from the Latin word ‘Solaris’ meaning sun or as the room provided privacy it may come from the Latin word ‘Solus’ meaning alone.

Timber-framed buildings were typically pre-fabricated in the spring and summer months with freshly felled, unseasoned oak that was soft and readily worked. Each timber was given a mark, many of which are still visible at Paycocke’s. This could be anything from a Roman numeral to hashing.

Markings in the room above the cartway at Paycocke’s have caused quite a controversy – circles with lines running through them are often associated with witches’ marks. Whilst some believe these markings may have a more sinister meaning, others believe they were merely markings to help builders put the beams together, finishing the jigsaw puzzle.

It had been thought that the burn marks on the wood had been from unguarded candles but they often appear higher up the wall so the candle explanation didn’t make sense. It’s now thought these thumb-sized burns are taper burns that were added to the wood during the construction to guard the building against lightning and fire – more along the superstition lines than scientific.

The tranquil garden behind Paycocke’s House was originally an industrial yard. In the early 1500s, Thomas Paycocke may have used it as part of his bustling business yard. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Paycocke’s fell into decline and by the end of 1875, the area was almost enclosed with buildings, including maltings, stabling, cart shed and a large enclosed yard. But it also had ample storage for the gardener’s produce and an excellent well-planted garden.

We have Miriam Noel to thank for transforming the land into a beautiful Arts and Crafts garden in the early twentieth century. The National Trust volunteers have restored the gardens to celebrate the history of the house through medieval dye plants, historic roses, and Edwardian fuchsias. The garden provides fresh flowers for the displays in the house and produce is often sold to visitors.

She loosely divided the garden’s oblong shape into compartments of varying character. She also added structural features such as the brick pathways, grid-patterned beds and the writers’ shelter.

Miriam’s Garden Room in the courtyard is covered with lilac Wisteria Sinensis. Believed to have been planted by Miriam, it is over 100 years old and frames the Buxton family emblem pargetted in the plaster above the doorway during the house’s restoration by Lord Buxton.

The long herbaceous borders frame the main lawn with a variety of perennials and annuals. The vegetable garden has a changing theme each year but always includes cutting flowers. And at the end of the garden is a small pond – a connection to earlier centuries when the House’s grounds extended down to the River Blackwater.

As you would expect at a National Trust property, there is a cafe with quality tea and cakes. Seating is outdoors in the garden.

The National Trust recently embarked on a multi-year project to externally re-decorate Paycocke’s House. Much of the exterior elevation is covered with lime-based mortar, and the timber work which supports the fabric of the building is preserved using a ‘lime wash’.

Limewash is considerably more ‘breathable’ than other paint options, allowing any moisture in the building to escape. It consolidates the surface and is used over both the timber and the lime render for any repairs. In addition, the alkaline composition of the lime deters problematic wood-boring beetles who would love the timber in Paycocke’s. Also, as the frontage faces straight onto the main road through Coggeshall, it was particularly at risk of damage from pollution.

The lime rendering cost £60,000 and was completed in 2020. Unfortunately, after the extreme heat (104F) in July this year, some of the render was damaged so repairs are planned.

Address: Paycocke’s House, 25 West Street, Coggeshall, Essex CO6 1NS

Location: 5 miles east of Braintree, off the A120. Do be aware, that Paycocke’s House is on a main road.

You need to pre-book a tour to be able to go inside. The tour takes about an hour.

Official Website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/paycockes-house-and-garden

There’s a free leaflet you can pick up that guides you on a walk around Coggeshall. There are almost 300 listed buildings in the town so it’s well worth taking the time to explore. 

The Coggeshall Museum is small and not open every day but I managed to combine my visit to Paycocke’s with a visit to the Museum as well. 

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Filed Under: Architecture, Days Out, England
Places: Essex
Tagged With: Essex, national trust

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Laura Porter writes aboutlondonlaura.com and fits in further freelance writing while maintaining an afternoon tea addiction to rival the Queen's. Laura is @AboutLondon on Twitter, @AboutLondon Laura on Facebook and aboutlondon on Instagram.

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