Colourful Coggeshall - must see near Colchester on way to Clacton

Coggeshall has been known for its old buildings but not it has a new variation on the old, adding colours such as red to turn the old black and white medieval or Victorian building into red and black, and tasteful pastels of green and cream and pink and white and pale powder blue making a soothing, pleasing variety of shop and house fronts, reminding me of colourful coastal villages in Norway.

Even on a short ten minute stop we really enjoyed driving through, parking for a photostop, looking at the old frontages.

Even a modest house with no garden can be identifiable and jolly with a contrasting front door. Here adjacent houses are united with a white and green theme. One has a green door and white windowframes on yellow background, The other has white door and windowframes on a green background.

Several buildings have interesting plaques.



A Bright Blue Building
Even the brightest blue looks great.

The blue of the tower is echoed by the blue square notice, and the small blue circular plaque over the door. 

Bright blue wooden horizontal planks, a yellow door, a green plaque, adjacent green wall with the blue noticeboard - it works. As you see the address is Stoneham Street.

One brightly coloured building amongst a sea of black and white, early browns, or granite, grey would look garish. But once you have a few colourful buildings, the others blend in beautifully, preserving the quaintness of the quirky old, yet creating a lively, clean, modern welcome.

I loved the houses decorated with the dog and birds, creamy yellow and brown.

Another has a white fleece ram, on an all white house, white door, white window frames, white front, very clean and fresh.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Angela Lansbury is a photo-journalist, travel writer, author, speaker.

See next post about the vineyard restaurant and shop on the way out of Coggeshall driving back to London.