AN AMBITIOUS project to reveal the history of timber-framed buildings in a market town has been awarded more funding.

Coggeshall Heritage Society has received an £8,000 grant from the Essex Heritage Trust, which means it is now only £4,000 away from its £76,000 target.

The society is surveying between 40 and 50 buildings in the town with connections to the wool trade, in the hope of ascertaining when they were built.

While many of the properties are 15th and 16th century, it is thought one or two may be older.

The extra cash will go towards complete surveys for one or two buildings, including timber dating, drawn plans, and study days for schoolchildren.

Project manager Alan Willis said: “I think Coggeshall is an important market town.

“There are special features in it and this is what we are trying to find out a bit more about.

“We want to find out how it developed and, hopefully, we will have a really good idea of how and when the streets were laid out, who lived in the buildings, and how the economy developed.”

On Saturday and Sunday, the society will finish the preliminary surveys of the buildings.

Samples from the timbers will be sent to specialists at Sheffield Unversity, who will try to date the properties.

The society has also been analysing survey material at the National Archives, in Richmond, Surrey, and the Essex Record Office, which lists properties and sites.

If the initiative is successful, Mr Willis hopes there will be a second phase, covering more of the town’s 300 listed properties.