Maldon bank was site of Spread Eagle for almost 200 years

Although shop fronts are altered and different businesses come and go, the overall appearance of buildings appear to stay the same.

Take, for example, the section that extends from the White Horse (at number 26) to the King’s Head (at 38).

Situated in the conservation area, it consists of seven separate buildings - albeit 30 is now the front to Edward’s Walk, 32 has been divided into three (32, 32a and 32b), and the King’s Head is now a Centre.

All seven of them are Grade II Listed, but their official entries in the register reveal a wide range of origins.

Structurally, the White Horse (along with 28 next door) is late 16th Century, number 30 (and 30a) is early 19th Century, 32 is mid 16th Century, 34 and 36 early 19th Century, and the King’s Head dates back to the 15th Century.

This is clearly a very ancient part of the High Street and what was the town’s original Market Place.

In the 16th Century it was known as Mercery Row and started life as a series of stalls that were then made more permanent in wood and plaster, and with attached residences, workshops and storage areas.

• The sign of the ‘Spread Eagle’ (drawing A. Puttock)

Behind the row (where the public car park is today) was a fulling mill (to clean and thicken woollen cloth) and in front of it, blocking out All Saints' Church, was Butcher Row.

Can you imagine it - the shouted haggling, the smells and the general hustle and bustle of everyday Tudor trading.

With commercial activity like that, there would have been a demand for places to wine and dine customers.

Conveniently situated at the west end of the row was the Bell - the name (until 1714) for the White Horse, a drinking establishment licensed from at least 1574.

At the other (east) end was the King’s Head, opened for business soon after 1577.

Both of those buildings are still recognisable today, but there was originally a third inn.

Located at 36 High Street (where the NatWest building is today) was the Spread Eagle. This began life as the Bull and was purchased in that name in 1567 by a Maldon shoemaker called John Manning.

He repaired it from its “ruinous state” and “new builded the same”, re-naming it the Spread Eagle. It appears as a “tavern” in a return of 1577 and John Manning was clearly very proud and protective of his handy work.

In his will (of 1582) he left instructions that his widow, Elizabeth, should preserve the wainscoting (panelling) and the framed glass windows.

It was a tenanted hostelry and Elizabeth Manning went on to enjoy the income generated through its rent - by the 1620s its value was reckoned to be around £30.

It then passed into the ownership of Sir William Sprignell, a landowner of the manor of Little Maldon.

He sold it, in 1692, to Captain Zachary Taylor, a mariner of Stratford, West Ham.

The resident landlord from 1689 to 1710 was William Straight.

A fine was levied on the inn in 1741 because its sign was deemed to be encroaching on the highway. It went on to serve as the terminus for a “light cart”, a carriers’ wagon that transported goods and everyday folk from the Fox and Dog tavern, at the junction of Wyre and St Botolph’s streets, Colchester.

The Spread Eagle, complete with yards, stables, cellars and wine vault, was last licensed in 1757 and it then became a private residence.

Initially occupied by Robert Salmon, he sold it to William Coe in 1768 and it became the home of the Smith family from 1778.

The building’s subsequent phase is a little confusing. It has been suggested that it was still a pub as late as 1832-1845, under a John Smith.

Furthermore that it was “destroyed by fire in 1845” and/or re-fronted in 1850.

• Mercery Row (after Petchey)

There is no evidence of it being licensed post-1757 and an early listed-building entry has it as an 18th Century construction with a large cart entrance at the western end (where the front door is now), all re-faced (in Suffolk white brick) in 1830.

We know that it was opened as the London & County Bank in 1848 (which metamorphosed into the London County and Westminster, the Westminster and finally the National Westminster, or NatWest).

In 1894, the bank was still affectionately referred to as “the old Spread Eagle”.

In reality, the original 15th Century tavern had disappeared – entirely destroyed or encased in the confusing layers of a later fabric.

The days of Mercery Row, however, had not been forgotten.

The King’s Head and White Horse were still busy pubs and the relatively new discipline of archaeology was desperately trying to capture and record our local heritage in advance of irreversible alterations.

Next door to the bank, was “…a fine carved front; a male and female kneeling before a cross with decorations of doves and oak branches with acorns (and an inscription) I John Doughty and Marian my wife built this house in the time of my life 1530”.

Portions of that woodwork were “preserved” at Belhus Mansion, Aveley, the seat of Thomas Barrett-Leonard, one-time MP for Maldon.

The mansion and its contents were sold off in 1923 and it was demolished in 1957.

I have been unable to track down the current whereabouts of the oaky images of John and Marian.

Wouldn’t it be great to locate them and bring them back home to Mercery Row, and to look upon the faces of two residents who may well have enjoyed a pint in the pub that was once located next door to their house.