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LAVENHAM– MEDIEVAL
TOWN
Dyed in the Wool Village of Suffolk
Often called
the “finest medieval town in England”,
Lavenham in south Suffolk, East Anglia is a quiet little village with
streets of
half-timbered houses on winding lanes well off the major motorways, the
perfect English countryside historic town, but Lavenham didn’t
start out as a sleepy little village. In 1397 when King Richard II demanded
a loan from the seventy riches towns in England, Lavenham was 52nd on
the list, equal to Bath and and Derby, by 1524, Lavenham was listed as
the 14th wealthiest town in the county. The source of the town’s
wealth was wool. It is from Lavenham
and the surrounding industry of
the middle-ages that we get the phase “dyed in the wool” from
wool being dyed before being woven into the thick blue broadcloth the
area was known for that dressed many a lord and lady in the days of chivalry.
But the wool trade faded as quickly as it came when Flemish immigrants
who settled in nearby Cholcester, began weaving lighter, thinner cloth.
The result is a town of 320 protected late middle-age listed buildings
from grand houses to cozy cottages.
The
first sign of the town’s former wealth and prosperity is its
magnificent Church of St. Peter and St Paul, a “parish church” nearly
the scale of a cathedral, built by the town’s historic landlord
John DeVere, the 13th Earl of Oxford, rewarded for his part in
defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, and a local wealthy
wool merchant Thomas Spring. DeVere’s symbols of the star and wild
boar are present on the church exterior. It was John DeVere’s great-grandson
Edward DeVere, the 17th Earl who has been postulated in the Shakespeare
authorship controversy and the DeVere ancestral castle is
about 15 minutes away to the southwest (see Castle
Hedingham).
Another
symbol of Lavenham’s medieval power is the Lavenham
Guild Hall, dominating the town market square, a National Trust site,
built around 1530 as a meeting place for the Guild of Corpus Christi.
Not a professional guild hall like most, but a Catholic religious organization,
though certainly made wealthy by wool, but within 20 years the guild
who built it was disbanded by the Protestant King Edward VI. The Guildhall
had many uses since, a town hall, a prison and workhouse. Today the Lavenham
Guildhall houses the town history museum, telling its story of wool and
transient wealth inside the rooms of rich wood and laticed windows.
It is from Lavenham
comes another familiar phase, from a nursery rhyme, “there
was a crooked man, who lived in a crooked house”. The Crooked House
of Lavenham can be found on High Street, the road which originally joined
the manors of Overhall and Netherhall, the first two manors of the DeVeres.
Across from the crooked house is the Greyhound Inn, and next door the
former “Pig and Whistle” for the emblems of the DeVere’s
the boar and the whistle of the Lord High Admiral.
On
High Street is the historic hotel The Swan at Lavenham, parts of the
hotel take up
a former guild building, the Wool Hall. The
Swan Hotel was
a bustling coaching inn during the 1800s, its courtyard once surrounded
by stables for fifty horses now forms the garden with its restaurant.
During World War II, near Lavenham was an air field for American bombers
making daylight bombing raids in B24 Liberators over Germany. The former
air base is now mostly weeds, but the fliers from the 487th Bomb Group
stationed
at Lavenham have left their names on the wall of the
Old Bar in the Swan Hotel, with
its floor made of bricks once used as ballast for wool ships, in what
is known as “The Boot Record” of those airmen
who could down three and a half pints of ale from a glass boot which
rests in its place
of honor above the bar. A portrait of 8th Air Force commander General
Frederick Castle whose headquarters
was in nearby Bury St Edmonds, hangs near the fireplace.
Other
historic hotels in the heart of Lavenham are located in listed buildings,
two on the
Market Square across from the Guild Hall. The Great
House Restaurant and Hotel is in the former residence of a wealthy weaving
family, has been called “Britain’s best restaurant with rooms” and
its restaurant regarded as one of the best in East Anglia. The Angel
Hotel across the market square is Lavenham’s oldest pub and inn,
first licensed in 1420, most recently renovated in the 1990s, a little
bit more budget friendly. The five Star luxury lodge, The Priory on Water
Street, next to the Devere House, is only open part of the season. There
are a number of restaurants around
Lavenham
for a day stolling the town, from Indian to traditional pub food.
Lavenham
is best reached by car. The main streets can be a bit busy with traffic
on weekends in this popular touring spot. There are parking
lots at the edges of town when the street spaces and square are packed
with vintage sports cars on outing. By public transportation the nearest
rail stations are Sudbury and Bury St Edmunds with bus service to Lavenham.
The Guild Hall at Lavenham is included in the Great British Heritage
Pass (see British
Heritage Pass Value). © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Lavenham
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See Also:
THE
SWAN HOTEL - SUFFOLK
DUXFORD
AIR MUSEUM
CHESTER - MEDIEVAL WALLED CITY
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