Paycocke's, Coggeshall, Essex

Description

TL 8422-8522 COGGESHALL WEST STREET
(south side)

9/227 No. 25 (Paycocke's)
2.5.53 (formerly listed as
Paycocks House)

GV I

House. C15 and C16, altered c.1600 and in C18, restored 1910. Timber framed,
plastered with some exposed framing and brick nogging, roofed with handmade red
plain tiles. Main range of 5 bays facing N, c.1505, with C19 axial stack near
right end and 2 rear stacks, late C16 and C18. 3-bay wing to rear of right end,
C15/early C16, with stack in rear bay. Beyond it, and originally separate, is a
2-bay building jettied to the left, C15, with a short connecting link. 3-bay
rear wing near left end of main range, with end jetty, c.1570. C18 stair tower
in angle to right of it, and C18/19 small extension to right. 2 storeys (the
main range reduced from an original build of 3 storeys c.1600). The close-
studded main elevation has been comprehensively restored in 1910 with carving of
high quality by Ernest Beckwith, retaining some original carved woodwork (see
photograph before restoration, Country Life, 2 February 1984, 291, and others by
Miss Frances Noel, copies with Essex County Planning Department). Ground floor,
2 square oriels and 3 fixed lights, and 5 similar oriels on first floor, all
C20, in early C16 style. An original door of 6 linenfold panels with moulded
rails and muntins, restored, has been moved since the exterior was photographed
by RCHM, c.1922, now almost central, 2 C20 carved figures above it. 2 blocked
doorways with carved arched heads, C20. Original double vehicle doors,
restored, at left end, with linenfold panelling, moulded frames, rails and
muntins, with original 4-centred arched head and spandrels carved with foliage.
The door-posts have restored pedestals, each with an original figure of a man
below a canopy; the left figure wears a hood and long gown and holds a staff or
musical instrument, of which part is missing; the right figure wears a short
tunic, holds a mask in the right hand, the left arm missing from the elbow.
Attached to the lower parts of the posts is original weathered carving of
serpentine foliage, re-sited. Full-length jetty with original moulded and
carved fascia with serpentine vine ornament, small heads and figures, the
letters T and P (for Thomas Paycocke) and a shield with a merchant's mark of a
2-stemmed clover or ermine tail, all in high relief. The jetty plate is carved
with blind tracery. 2 of the modern oriels on the ground floor appear to be
accurate reconstructions of missing originals; a plain section of jetty plate
with 2 free tenons near the right end indicates that originally there was a
third oriel there. Restored attached shafts with chevron carved capitals and
moulded brackets on both storeys. The jetty plate above the upper storey is
carved with spiral foliage. The original beams and joists above, which formerly
projected to form a second jetty, have been sawn off, and moulded and carved
extension pieces added in 1910. The exposed brick nogging is partly original,
partly of 1910. On the lower storey 8 panels are substantially original, and 17
panels on the upper storey, all in opposed triangles pattern. Panels adjacent
to the modern windows have been infilled with modern bricks in rectangular
patterns; 2 panels in reversed blocks pattern on the upper storey appear to be
of original bricks (J. McCann, Brick Nogging in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Centuries, with examples drawn mainly from Essex, Trans. Ancient Monuments
Society 31, 1987, 106-133). On the upper storey of the rear left wing, at the
rear and the right, are original windows each with 2 ovolo mullions, the saddle
bars missing; the latter has a later wrought iron casement. The rear elevation
has a moulded bressumer and moulded tiebeam. The rear right building has
exposed studding with restored curved tension braces trenched to the outside. In
the main range all the rear posts continue upwards above the girt which now
effectively forms the rear eaves plate, sawn off when the building was reduced
from 3 storeys. There are structural indications that the left bay was added
shortly after the original build. Close studding with curved bracing trenched
into it is exposed in most rooms. The partition wall between the vehicle way
and the left ground-floor room has been moved outwards; the transverse beam
which originally divided the 2 is chamfered on the left side, moulded on the
right. In the bay to the left the axial beam is chamfered, and the joists are
chamfered with step stops. In the bay to the right all the beams are moulded,
and the joists are moulded with foliate carved stops. At the rear the joists
are framed round an original stair-trap, now blocked with C20 moulded joists;
the blocked entrance to the stair is visible in the wall to the right. A
similar stair-trap in the floor above originally led to the former second floor.
In the rear wall a late C16 wide wood-burning hearth has a re-used early C16
mantel beam with cranked top, moulded soffit, and face carved with animals, the
merchant's mark, and scrolls with the name Thomas Paycock; the right end is
wholly C20 restoration, and there is minor restoration elsewhere. The remainder
of the room is lined with original linenfold panelling. The middle room of 2
bays has a C20 hearth. All the beams and joists are moulded and richly carved
with flowing blind tracery; additionally some joists are carved with the
merchant's mark and the initials T.P. and M.P. (for Thomas Paycocke and his
first wife Margaret, née Horrold). The plates and beams are carved to form a
frieze of similar tracery all round. In the right ground-floor room the beams
and joists are moulded. The front and rear walls have a frieze of billet
moulding. There are original doorways to left and rear with moulded jambs and
4-centred arched heads with carved spandrels. The small C19 hearth is faced
with Delft tiles. Over the first-floor middle and left rooms the beams and
joists are moulded; in the front bays the planks are laid parallel with the
joists, across them elsewhere. Over the 2 outer rooms the beams are chamfered,
and the joists are chamfered with step stops. In the second room from the left,
near the rear left corner, the lower half of one panel retains plaster painted
with roses and foliage, and a later painted border half-covering the roses. In
this room a wood-burning hearth has an original mantel beam carved with
grotesque beasts and the merchant's mark. In the right wall is a blocked
original doorway with moulded jambs, the arched head missing. Above the right
room is a blocked original stair-trap; in its left wall is a similar blocked
doorway with a mortice for a draught screen. The room between has an C18 hearth
with rounded interior. The roof is of clasped purlin construction with thin
arched wind-bracing, characteristic of the late C16 or early C17, and of poorer
quality than the remainder of this range. All the rafters are modern. Some
charring near the left end is reported to have occurred c.1950. In the rear
left wing the binding and bridging beams (2 in each bay) are chamfered with
lamb's tongue stops, and plain joists of horizontal section are jointed to them
with soffit tenons with diminished haunches. Arched braces are trenched inside
the studding; jowled posts. A C17 hearth on the upper floor has a plain mantel
beam, to which has been applied carved timber from elsewhere. The roof has been
rebuilt in gambrel form in the C18. The stair tower has unjowled posts and
primary straight bracing. Heavily weathered timber on the rear wall of the main
range indicates that it was added long after the main construction. The wing to
rear right is of narrow span, with chamfered binding beams and plain joists of
horizontal section jointed to them with unrefined soffit tenons; clasped purlin
roof with high arched collars. The building beyond has a chamfered axial beam;
to right of it plain joists of horizontal section are jointed to it with
unrefined soffit tenons; to left the jointing is of low-central tenons,
indicating a sophisticated appreciation of the cantilever effect of the jetty
Complete unglazed window to right of upper storey, with 2 diamond mullions and
rebate for shutter. Thick arched braces to central tiebeam. Coupled rafter
roof. The frame is illustrated in C.A. Hewett, The Development of Carpentry,
1200-1700, an Essex study, 1969, 135, 137, 197. (G.F. Beaumont, A History of
Coggeshall in Essex, 1890, 207-9 and 241. J.S. Gardner (ed.), Coggeshall,
Essex, 1951, 22). RCHM 3.

Listing NGR: TL8478322508

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British Listed Buildings

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Paycocke's

A Grade I Listed Building in Coggeshall, Essex

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Description

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