THE Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII freed up large tracts of land throughout East Anglia, allowing the newly rich gentry to create farms and estates on former monastic lands. In the late Tudor period, prosperous landowners built grand country houses for themselves, together with farmhouses and cottages for the tenants who worked the land.
The building material of choice was often brick, first introduced from the Low Countries in the late medieval period—some imported as ballast aboard ships exporting English wool to the Continent, others made in brickyards established in East Anglia by Dutch immigrants. It was all part of a tradition of fine craftsmanship that still survives throughout the region, as can be seen in a number of meticulously restored houses that have recently come onto the market.
Launched in today’s COUNTRY LIFE at a guide price of £2.95 million through the Chelmsford office of Strutt & Parker (01245 254600), Grade II-listed Coggeshall Hall near Kelvedon, Essex, is an immaculate country house of great character set amid the open countryside of north Essex, with 12 acres of formal gardens and pasture bounded to the east by the River Blackwater.
Described by selling agent Mark Rimell as ‘a house of two halves’, it comprises a late16th-century house built, according to its Historic England listing, ‘circa 1575, mainly timber-framed and plastered with some weatherboarding and plum bricks in Flemish bond, roofed with handmade red plain tiles, with an early 19th century cross-wing of plum brick forming a T-plan and later entrance elevation’.
Denne historien er fra April 28, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 28, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds