Thaxted and Saffron Walden September 2011

Our second coach outing of the year was to Thaxted and Saffron Walden on Wednesday 21st September.
Our first port of call was the Swan Hotel for tea/coffee, a beautiful old inn directly opposite the parish church of St John. Our Blue Badge guides met us in the church and gave a brief talk describing its features and history. It is known as the Cathedral of Essex because of its size and grandeur. Its spire is notable as you approach Thaxted and its position on the hill behind the Guildhall makes a wonderful photogenic scene.
Our guides split us into four groups and we all set out in different directions and criss-crossed our way around the town.
Our route took us past the Almshouses to the John Webb windmill, a Grade 11 listed brick tower windmill, complete with working machinery but sadly lacking sails as one broke in a storm. However money has been raised and hopefully it will be restored in 2012.
Then down the hill to the market place and the Guildhall. This was once the home of the Cutlers’ Guild and it is recorded that as far back as 1462 Thaxted was an Essex town where cutlery had long flourished. Over the last six centuries it has served as a covered market, a Grammar School, housed the lock-up, been used as a film set and still remains the centre of the town’s administration and culture. Thaxted grew rich from the cutlery trade and when that moved to Sheffield it made more money from wool until that moved to the Northern towns. Then the town went into decline but that meant that the beautiful buildings were not continuously modernised or rebuilt and so they have survived to today.
Gustav Holst, who composed the Planet Suite, lived near here
We walked back up Stoney Lane with its cobbles, past Dick Turpin’s cottage towards the church and then looked at the fine buildings such as Clarence House before boarding our coach for the journey onwards to Saffron Walden.
The saffron crocus was grown locally and by the early 1500s the town was the centre of saffron industry in this country. Saffron was used to make a yellow dye. The wealth generated from this industry accounts for the many fine timber-framed buildings of this time and the largest parish church in Essex, completed in 1525.
The decline of the saffron industry in the seventeenth century let to little development or expansion in the town.
We explored the town and its shops and eating places at our own pace before returning to the coach for our journey home after a very enjoyable day.