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Halstead can trace its history back through five thousand years, a very long time by anyone’s standards. The Romans did not stay in the area for very long; they came across from the continent of Europe sailing up what is now the Colne valley and pushing on to the west. Signs of even earlier presence have been unearthed in the neighbourhood, such as tools that were used in the stone and bronze ages.

In the 5th to 6th centuries further invaders arrived – from the German-Danish border area – and this time they made permanent settlements beside the River Colne. At that time the valley was thickly wooded but the newcomers felled the trees and cleared enough land to make agricultural holdings for themselves and to build wooden huts with thatched roofs. Thus a village was created, later to become the town that grew to become Halstead. The name Halstead is old English for ‘the settlement on the valley slope or heald’. It referred, probably, to the site on the top of the ridge on the north bank of the Colne. Other sources refer to Halstead as meaning ‘healthy place’.

The Anglo-Saxon chiefs were driven out with the coming of the Normans who granted their estates to the followers of the new Norman king, William. Even today, nearly one thousand years later, the names of some of these Norman families can still be found in farm, field and family names in and around the town. The Domesday Book records that the landowners of the Halstead area consisted of Wilfwin, who held ten acres, and a further 53 free men, an unusually large number of landholders for this part of Essex. Some of these would have lived in the settlement on the valley slope but the majority would have been scattered throughout this area on individual farms and holdings. The Domesday record also shows that there were three corn mills in and around Halstead, an indication that the area had a population of several hundred. In 1086 it seems that the local population included 78 smallholders, 22 freemen and eight slaves and that there were three mills and nineteen ploughs in the area.

There was said to be a market in Halstead before 1251 but in 1251 the Lord of the Manor, Abel St Martins, was given a charter by Henry III to hold a Saturday market and keep the market tolls. Today, over seven hundred years later, this Saturday market is still held and the present Lord of the Manor, Mr J. Vaizey still receives the stallholders tolls. A Tuesday market was granted in 1330 to Robert Bouchier and in 1467 a Friday market was granted by Henry, Earl of Essex. Halstead grew to be the dominant market town of this part of Essex and in 1411 the population was said to be 500. A thriving woollen industry grew up as indicated by the fact that there were numerous Flemish weavers here by 1454. This began Halstead’s long association with weaving which brought prosperity though not without various setbacks. Continental wars, the English Civil War and outbreaks of plague all disrupted production at home.

A century later, in 1576, a number of Flemish master weavers who had settled in Colchester left that town and settled in Halstead where they produced much superior cloths to those that had hitherto been produced. However, there was much antagonism between those newcomers and the Halstead locals. In 1589 the exasperated Dutch weavers went back to Colchester with the result that there was a great drop in demand for Halstead cloth and a great deal of local distress. The Dutchmen, however, would not be persuaded to return. A further decline in the cloth trade came with the early 19th century Napoleonic wars. The local industry never recovered from this further decline which saw the town at its lowest ebb.

Help was, however, at hand in the form of Samuel Courtauld who, in 1825, bought the old Townford Mill near Halstead’s town bridge and converted it to the manufacture of silk yarn. He built up a successful business making silk and velvet cloths and black crêpe – indeed, Halstead crêpe became very highly regarded as a mourning material. Courtaulds produced the silk which was used for making the mourning gowns for Queen Victoria following the death of Prince Albert. The factory was enlarged and by the end of the Victorian period was giving employment to over 1200 local people. In those years Courtaulds was essentially a paternalistic family business and it funded a range of civic amenities including a school, cottage hospital and public gardens. Other industries also came to the town, notable among them being Adams Brewery and the foundry of Charles Portway & Son Ltd whose Tortoise boilers and stoves became well known and used throughout the world.

In the first half of the 19th century the town’s population more than doubled. The demand for houses grew and dwellings were built in every available yard and alleyway, often being densely packed together in most insalubrious conditions. The Globe Inn, for example, had six weavers’ cottages built in its yard – with weaving rooms in their upper storeys. Courtaulds also built houses for their employees throughout the town. The mill manager’s house was right next to the factory with a connecting door between. At this time, too, came the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway – in 1862. Purely a local line, it ran along the valley from Chappel (near Colchester) to Haverhill. It never achieved main line status and eventually closed, as uneconomic, in 1965, the station being demolished two years later.

Although Courtaulds took up the manufacture of man-made fibres and became a major international company, intense foreign competition forced its downfall and the entire Halstead operation ceased in 1982. The town’s link with weaving and cloth had come to an end. Brewing, too, ceased in the 1960s and the famous Tortoise stove is no more after many 100’s of 1000’s were manufactured, both the buildings having long since been demolished. However, the demise of its basic industries has led to the arrival of several new industries, most of them on the two new industrial estates that have been created with opportunities for new employment. Today’s Halstead has over 11,000 inhabitants and remains an attractive country town with a long history to look back on.