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Saffron Walden can trace its story to the very earliest times
- back, indeed, to the Bronze and Iron Age tribes who settled in
this area. ‘Beaker pottery’ of the Bronze Age has been
found in the locality as well as relics of Neolithic inhabitants.
These early settlers travelled into this part of Essex, then a densely
wooded country, along the River Cam and its tributaries. Defensive
works were built to protect the site and traces of three of these
works remain today - Battle Ditches and Ring Hill Camp which were
probably military forts and the series of enclosures known as Grimsditches.
Time has taken its toll of all three earthworks. The Battle Ditches
earthwork is nearly 500 feet in length whilst Ring Hill, an Iron
Age site, encloses an oval area of over sixteen acres. In the western
section of Battle Ditches, over 200 Roman graves were found - one
of the very few reminders of the in this part of the country. Their
main base was at nearby Chesterford.
If the Romans made little impact on the area, the Saxons made a
great deal for they, from about the year 700 onwards, built up a
village, with a wooden church and castle, on the spur of land between
the Slade and Madgate Brooks. This site was defended by a wooden
palisade and corresponds roughly to the present High Street - Castle
Street - Church Street section of the town centre.
 The
Normans occupied the Saxon site and they set to work rebuilding
the church in stone. They also cleared much of the woodland around
the town. Saffron Walden was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086,
its then importance being indicated by the founding, a little later,
of Walden Abbey near the present site of Audley End. Even greater
importance followed: first in about 1125 when the Castle was built
and then in 1141 when the local market was transferred to the town
from nearby Newport. The Abbey granted the town a Tuesday market
in 1295. 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 in size and stature and houses
were built down the slopes of the hill away from the castle and
towards the market place which was created beside Slade Brook. By
the 13th century King and Market Streets had been built together
with Mercers, Butcher and Drapers Rows for the traders. This basic
pattern, built for the medieval trades, can still be followed in
the town centre today, a rare and interesting survival.
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 the Uttlesford District Council which
was created in that re-organisation.
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