This early 16th-century town house in Coggeshall was built by the wealthy wool merchant John Paycocke on the occasion of his son’s marriage. Coggeshall was a major cloth-making town in Tudor times, and the prosperity and commercial success of the Paycocke family is reflected in the elaborate decoration of the house. The long, close-studded street façade has 5 oriels on the upper floor; below, a beam running its full length is carved with a variety of curious figures, including an upside-down dragon, a head on a flower stalk, and a small person apparently diving into a lily. Inside there are superior wood-carvings, including a magnificent ceiling in the great hall which carries the merchant mark of the Paycockes – an ermine tail. Paycocke’s was restored in 1905 by its then owner, Lord Buxton, a descendant of a family which had occupied it during the late 16th century.