We used to go through Coggeshall almost every Saturday on our way to Colchester which is the biggest town in the area. This whole area was inhabited by the Romans and Colchester was an important Roman military camp. The photo below is of a main street but it’s amazingly quiet, all the buildings remind me of the Mapp and Lucia books by E.F. Benson, although those books were set in Rye in Sussex. I half expected to see Quaint Irene wandering about the place.

I’m sure I’ve got a jigsaw puzzle somewhere which looks very similar to this photo. The buildings are so alien to me but very attractive.

I can’t help thinking that they look like they would just fall over if you gave them a wee bit of a nudge. The one below is unusual because the timbers are intricately carved.

And yet another English church, this one does have an unusual name though, St. Peter-ad-vincula, but I think it just means St Peter-in-chains.

Coggeshall is another one of those sort of chocolate boxy places and they all seem to have a few up-market boutiques, there’s certainly more to the place than I remember. Thirty odd years ago it was well known for having inhabitants who were a bit daft and were known as Coggies but I like to think that they were just ‘characters’ and weren’t actually suffering from inbreeding!