This area of the Cam valley around Saffron Walden has
seen human activity from earliest times, as testified by finds of
flint and bronze tools dating back to the Stone Ages and Bronze
Age, and evidence of Bronze Age burials. From the Iron Age there
are defensive earthworks: a
hill fort of Ring Hill Camp to the west of Saffron Walden, and in
Little Walden parish to the north, the remains of a banked enclosure
which may be of similar date. Traces of Iron Age settlement have
been excavated within the area of the town. The late Iron Age and
Roman landscape was populated with small farming settlements but
the most important Roman site in the area was the town at Great
Chesterford, three miles north of Saffron Walden. There was some
sort of Roman settlement on the west side of Saffron Walden, along
Abbey Lane towards Audley End Park. It is just possible that there
was a small Roman fort in this area. Excavations in the 19th century
uncovered some Romano-British burials, slight evidence for early
Anglo-Saxon settlement and a later, large Anglo-Saxon cemetery which
could date between the 7th and 11th centuries. This cemetery may
have been served by a small timber church, although no trace of
such a building has been identified. One burial produced a spectacular
Viking necklace of late 9th century date – the owner may have
been a Scandinavian immigrant who settled in Walden around the time
of Alfred the Great.
Walden was a prosperous manor by the Norman conquest. Two pieces
of a late Anglo-Saxon cross-shaft, dating to about this time, are
known from the area of the present Church, otherwise evidence of
activity on the hilltop before the Norman period remains elusive.
This commanding site, overlooking the earlier settlement area around
Abbey Lane, was chosen for Walden Castle, which was built almost
certainly by Geoffrey II de Mandeville, Earl of Essex. In 1141 the
Empress Maud granted Geoffrey the right to move the market from
Newport to Walden. It is assumed that the site for St Mary’s
Church was also established as part of the new Norman layout. Geoffrey
de Mandeville founded a Benedictine priory, later Walden Abbey,
outside the town where Audley End House now stands. The Abbey granted
the town a Tuesday market in 1295.
Although the Castle was not inhabited for very long, it defined
the medieval town which grew up around it. Beyond the inner bailey
(approximately the area of the Castle and Museum grounds) there
was an extensive outer bailey encircling the hill top. Beyond that,
the town boundaries were marked by a defensive ditch, known today
as the Battle Ditches, and still visible at the south-west corner,
south of Abbey Lane. This town enclosure may have been part of de
Mandeville’s grand but short-lived design for his new town
and market in the twelfth century, or may have been the work of
the de Bohuns, the family who eventually inherited the earldom of
Essex and the manor of Walden in the thirteenth century. In about
1300 the first Charter was received although Saffron Walden did
not achieve full borough status until the Charter of 1549. Throughout
these years the town grew and the market place, originally much
larger, became filled in with rows of buildings where temporary
stalls had once stood. This pattern can be seen in the town today,
in such streets as Mercers, Butcher and Market Rows.
In the Middle Ages, Saffron Walden was busy and prosperous. Like
many other East Anglian towns its wealth was in the wool trade but
in addition, there was saffron, used for dyeing and as a medicine,
and to which plant the town owes its name. Broadly speaking the
wool trade prospered in the 15th century, saffron was uppermost
during the 16th and 17th centuries and was followed, through the
18th and 19th centuries, by the production of malt.
These commercial interests were fostered by the formation of two
guilds. In 1389 the first of these - the Guild of the Holy Trinity
- was founded and acted as a form of early if rather primitive local
government. The guilds survived until the Reformation but their
closing seemed to have had little effect on either the market or
the town’s industries. Indeed, throughout these years, many
new houses were built and others, formerly of timber, were rebuilt
in brick.
This period of prosperity coincided with the flourishing of the
saffron industry. The Saffron Crocus was introduced into this country,
from Greece and Turkey, by returning Crusaders. It has a striking
purple flower and, as well as being used medicinally and as a dye,
it also served as a condiment and perfume. The crop was planted
for three seasons and then followed a fallow year before growing
re-started. The long stigmas were taken out of the plants, dried
in a kiln and pressed into blocks. At the height of its prosperity,
the industry extended across the surrounding countryside with three-acre
fields of Saffron (fenced around with hurdles) giving, in due season,
a purplish hue to the landscape.
Although the town’s name still reminds us of this long-basic
industry, it had in fact died out by the end of the 18th century,
largely killed off by easier and more effective methods of dyeing.
Its place in the local economy was taken by the malt and barley
trade, and by the general growth of the town as a market and agricultural
centre for a highly productive farming country. An attempt was made
to broaden the industrial pattern by opening a silk mill but the
idea proved a failure. Even the malting trade began slowly to decline
as the Victorian era advanced and it, too, was finally killed -
largely by heavy taxation. In the later years of the 19th century
trade also declined and coaching traffic, at one period of some
importance to the town, was reduced as the railways opened. Unfortunately
the main line from London to Cambridge by-passed Saffron Walden
which found itself located on a branch from Audley End. In those
days before the advent of ‘park and ride’ ideas, a town
centre main line station was an undeniable asset and Saffron Walden’s
fortunes suffered accordingly. Now, of course, the branch line has
gone but Audley End station quite effectively serves the town.
Despite these troubles, however, the town developed through the
19th century and by the 1860’s it had 1,200 houses and a resident
population of 5,474. Improvements made in 1862 including improved
drainage and water works and a contemporary account referred to
the town’s ‘several good streets and many good buildings’.
It had a cattle market that had been opened in 1834, a ‘public
well’ of one thousand feet in depth and, as well as several
schools and churches, such amenities as a literary institute, reading
room and library were built.
The present century has seen changes although the town retains many
of its older buildings and, as mentioned earlier, its original street
pattern can still be easily discerned. Newer industries have come
in to replace the traditional trades and to widen the base of local
economic prosperity. Housing estates have sprung up on all sides
and the very administration of the town has changed. The Charter
of 1549 established a governing body that was the forerunner of
the Borough Council that lasted right through until the local government
re-organisation of 1974. That Borough Council’s tradition
is carried on today by the successor Town Council although most
major services are provided by Uttlesford District Council which
was created in that re-organisation.
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