1, Market Hill

This is a late 16th-century house, later altered in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and now used as a shop. It is located on Market Hill in Coggeshall. The building is timber framed with plaster infill and some red brick in a Flemish bond pattern. The roof is covered in handmade red plain tiles. It has two bays facing east, with the left return angled sharply inwards towards the rear. A 17th-century stair tower is situated to the rear right, topped with a 20th-century flat roof, and a 19th-century catslide roof extends to the rear left, also with a 20th-century stack. A single-storey 20th-century extension with a flat roof completes the triangular plan of the building.

The ground floor has a 20th-century double shopfront with a central recessed entrance and glazed door. The first floor features two early 19th-century sash windows, each with 16 lights and crown glass, in their original openings. A further early 19th-century sash window of 12 lights is found in an altered opening in the left return. At the rear, there is a 20th-century casement window within a gabled dormer. The building has an underbuilt jetty at the front.

Internally, the ground floor partition wall between the bays and the rear wall have been removed, with a 20th-century brick wall inserted along the rear. The wall on the right side of the building has exposed studding, while the left wall has been filled with 18th and 19th-century brick from ground level to the apex of the roof. Inside, you'll find a chamfered binding beam and chamfered bridging beams, without run-out stops, along with joists that have been plastered over. A rear lean-to includes an 18th-century "borrowed light" window with 20 panes of handmade glass and original rectangular leading, which requires special care. The upper storey retains much of its exposed studding. Jowled posts are present, and the post at the front left corner shows some charring; a photograph from 1897 reveals that a neighbouring building was destroyed by fire. This lost building was The Red Lion Inn.

The roof is a clasped purlin roof with straight wind-braces. The 17th-century winder stair has plain newels and simply moulded handrails, fully-jointed and pegged and all sand-blasted. There’s some evidence of former oriel windows on the front. There are also chamfered axial beams, without run-out stops, and plain joists of vertical section jointed to them with central tenons and housed soffits.