Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Lavenham
Lavenham (/ˈlævənəm/) is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is noted for its Guildhall, Little Hall, 15th-century church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walks. In the medieval period it was among the twenty wealthiest settlements in England. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1722.
Before the Norman Conquest of England, the manor of Lavenham had been held by the thegn Ulwin or Wulwine. In 1086 the estate was in the possession of Aubrey de Vere I, ancestor of the Earls of Oxford. He had already had a vineyard planted there. The Vere family continued to hold the estate until 1604, when it was sold to Sir Thomas Skinner.
Lavenham prospered from the wool trade in the 15th and 16th centuries, with its blue broadcloth being an export of note. By the late 15th century, the village was among the richest in the British Isles, paying more in taxation than considerably large towns such as York and Lincoln. Several merchant families emerged, the most successful of which was the Spring family.
The village’s prosperity at this time can be seen in the lavishly constructed wool church of St Peter and St Paul, which stands on a hill at the top end of the high street. The church, completed in 1525, is excessively large for the size of the village and with a tower standing 138 feet (42 m) high it lays claim to being the highest village church tower in Britain. Other buildings also demonstrate the village’s medieval wealth. Lavenham Wool Hall was completed in 1464.
The Guildhall of the catholic guild of Corpus Christi was built in 1529 and stands in the centre of the village overlooking the market square. When visiting in 1487[citation needed] Henry VII fined several Lavenham families for displaying too much wealth. However during the 16th century Lavenham's industry was badly affected by Dutch refugees settled in Colchester, who produced cloth that was cheaper and lighter than Lavenham's and also more fashionable. Cheaper cloth from Europe also aided the settlement's decline, and by 1600 it had lost its reputation as a major trading town. This sudden and dramatic change to the village’s fortune is the principal reason for so many medieval and Tudor buildings remaining unmodified, since subsequent generations of citizens did not have the wealth required to rebuild in the latest styles.
The Little Hall is a late 14th-century hall house on the main square. Built in the 1390s as a family house and workplace, it was enlarged and modernised in the mid-1550s and greatly extended later. By the 1700s it was home to six families. It was restored in the 1920s/30s by Robert Grenville Gayer-Anderson and his identical-twin brother Thomas. In the 1960s and 70s it was an outpost of Kingston (Surrey) College of Art. In 1975 Surrey County Council offered it to the Suffolk Building Preservation Trust, who restored it. It now contains the Gayer-Anderson collection of pictures and artefacts, including a copy of the Gayer-Anderson cat, and operates as a museum.
During the reign of Henry VIII Lavenham was the scene of serious resistance to Wolsey's 'Amicable Grant', a tax being raised in England to pay for war with France. However this was happening without the consent of parliament. In 1525 10,000 men from Lavenham and the surrounding villages took part in the Lavenham Revolt, a serious uprising that threatened to spread to the nearby counties of Essex and Cambridgeshire. However the revolt was suppressed for the King by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, with the aid of local families. Elizabeth I visited the village during a Royal Progress of East Anglia in 1578.
Like most of East Anglia, Lavenham was staunchly Parliamentarian throughout the Civil Wars of the 1640s. Most local landowners, such as Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, Sir Philip Parker and Sir William Spring, were strong advocates of the Parliamentarian cause. There is no record of the village ever being involved in the conflict direct, although the inhabitants did provide a troop of soldiers to aid in Parliament's Siege of Colchester in 1648. A grammar school opened in the village in 1647. The settlement was struck by plague in 1666 and 1699. Small pox struck in 1712 and 1713, killing more than one in six of Lavenham's residents.
Hub AI
Lavenham AI simulator
(@Lavenham_simulator)
Lavenham
Lavenham (/ˈlævənəm/) is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is noted for its Guildhall, Little Hall, 15th-century church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walks. In the medieval period it was among the twenty wealthiest settlements in England. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1722.
Before the Norman Conquest of England, the manor of Lavenham had been held by the thegn Ulwin or Wulwine. In 1086 the estate was in the possession of Aubrey de Vere I, ancestor of the Earls of Oxford. He had already had a vineyard planted there. The Vere family continued to hold the estate until 1604, when it was sold to Sir Thomas Skinner.
Lavenham prospered from the wool trade in the 15th and 16th centuries, with its blue broadcloth being an export of note. By the late 15th century, the village was among the richest in the British Isles, paying more in taxation than considerably large towns such as York and Lincoln. Several merchant families emerged, the most successful of which was the Spring family.
The village’s prosperity at this time can be seen in the lavishly constructed wool church of St Peter and St Paul, which stands on a hill at the top end of the high street. The church, completed in 1525, is excessively large for the size of the village and with a tower standing 138 feet (42 m) high it lays claim to being the highest village church tower in Britain. Other buildings also demonstrate the village’s medieval wealth. Lavenham Wool Hall was completed in 1464.
The Guildhall of the catholic guild of Corpus Christi was built in 1529 and stands in the centre of the village overlooking the market square. When visiting in 1487[citation needed] Henry VII fined several Lavenham families for displaying too much wealth. However during the 16th century Lavenham's industry was badly affected by Dutch refugees settled in Colchester, who produced cloth that was cheaper and lighter than Lavenham's and also more fashionable. Cheaper cloth from Europe also aided the settlement's decline, and by 1600 it had lost its reputation as a major trading town. This sudden and dramatic change to the village’s fortune is the principal reason for so many medieval and Tudor buildings remaining unmodified, since subsequent generations of citizens did not have the wealth required to rebuild in the latest styles.
The Little Hall is a late 14th-century hall house on the main square. Built in the 1390s as a family house and workplace, it was enlarged and modernised in the mid-1550s and greatly extended later. By the 1700s it was home to six families. It was restored in the 1920s/30s by Robert Grenville Gayer-Anderson and his identical-twin brother Thomas. In the 1960s and 70s it was an outpost of Kingston (Surrey) College of Art. In 1975 Surrey County Council offered it to the Suffolk Building Preservation Trust, who restored it. It now contains the Gayer-Anderson collection of pictures and artefacts, including a copy of the Gayer-Anderson cat, and operates as a museum.
During the reign of Henry VIII Lavenham was the scene of serious resistance to Wolsey's 'Amicable Grant', a tax being raised in England to pay for war with France. However this was happening without the consent of parliament. In 1525 10,000 men from Lavenham and the surrounding villages took part in the Lavenham Revolt, a serious uprising that threatened to spread to the nearby counties of Essex and Cambridgeshire. However the revolt was suppressed for the King by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, with the aid of local families. Elizabeth I visited the village during a Royal Progress of East Anglia in 1578.
Like most of East Anglia, Lavenham was staunchly Parliamentarian throughout the Civil Wars of the 1640s. Most local landowners, such as Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, Sir Philip Parker and Sir William Spring, were strong advocates of the Parliamentarian cause. There is no record of the village ever being involved in the conflict direct, although the inhabitants did provide a troop of soldiers to aid in Parliament's Siege of Colchester in 1648. A grammar school opened in the village in 1647. The settlement was struck by plague in 1666 and 1699. Small pox struck in 1712 and 1713, killing more than one in six of Lavenham's residents.