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 latticed 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 at Lavenham 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 strolling 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
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See Also:
THE
SWAN HOTEL AT LEVANHAM - SUFFOLK
DUXFORD
AIR MUSEUM
CHESTER - MEDIEVAL WALLED CITY