Lavenham

Introduction

"The most perfectly preserved of all the Suffolk cloth towns". So many guides give detailed historical and architectural details that it is sufficient to say that the 16th century Guildhall, Market Cross (erected in 1501), Little Hall (built 1450) and church should not be missed.

The impressive Guildhall was the home to Cuthbert Quilter in the late 19th century, a local entrepreneur and MP who also owned the Pure Beer brewery at Melton. John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford and commander of the king's vanguard at the Battle of Bosworth (1485) also lived here. John Constable and Arthur Young were pupils at the local school. Jane Taylor, author of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and other rhymes lived in the village (and in Colchester). Lavenham was recorded in Domesday as "Lauen" and appears on John Speed's 1610 map as "Laneham".

By 1881 the town's long association with fine cloth making was gone with most weavers then being listed as "horse hair weavers" or "cocoa matting weavers". Today the Guildhall is in hands of the National Trust and houses a local history exhibition. …

Gallery

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History

A reference appears in the Ipswich Journal, 12 June 1779***, to a list of inn holders in Lavenham, unfortunately, without the inn name being provided. The names given are: Thomas Woodgate , John Mattham, George Hayward, Thomas Ruffell, James Skeet, John Stribling, John Horsley, Isaac Hewes, Samuel Chymist, and Elizabeth Carter.…

Acknowledgements

Some details from "Suffolk Airfields in WW2" by Graham Smith.

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