Lavenham Guildhall

Lavenham Guildhall is a timber-framed municipal building in Lavenham, Suffolk, England. It is Grade I listed.[1]

Lavenham Guildhall
LocationLavenham, Suffolk
Coordinates52.1088°N 0.7966°E / 52.1088; 0.7966
Built1529
Architectural style(s)Jettied timber framing
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated23 January 1958
Reference no.1037186
Location of Lavenham Guildhall in Suffolk

History

By the late 14th century, Lavenham was at the centre of the East Anglian woollen cloth trade.[2] Its specialised production of woad-dyed broadcloth, known as Lavenham Blue,[3] had made it one of the richest towns in England.[lower-alpha 1] This wealth was the catalyst for four guilds being established in the town by the local merchant families: the most important of these was the Guild of Corpus Christi formed in 1529.[9] The guild established their guildhall at around that time; the design made extensive use of jettied timber framing and featured a gabled porch projecting from the centre of the building on the north-west elevation.[1]

With the decline of the woollen cloth trade and Lavenham's prosperity, the guildhall's role changed. By 1689, the guildhall was in use as a bridewell, and from 1787 it was used as a workhouse.[1] Prison cells and mortuary buildings were established in the area behind the guildhall in 1833.[7] In 1887, the guildhall was acquired by Sir Cuthbert Quilter, a local member of parliament, and he restored it in around 1911.[1] It was used as a social club for American troops stationed nearby[10] and also as a British Restaurant during the Second World War and, in 1946, Sir William Quilter gave it to the people of Lavenham.[2] It became the property of the National Trust in 1951 and it was subsequently opened to the public as a local history museum.[11][12]

Inside the guildhall, in addition to exhibits presenting the evolution of the guildhall from cloth trade to workhouse, there is a display of memorabilia associated with Lavenham railway station, which was a stop on the Long Melford–Bury St Edmunds branch line before it closed in 1961.[7]

Notes
  1. One study ranked Lavenham as the fourteenth richest in the country based on the Lay Subsidy (i.e. tax revenue) of 1524,[4][5][6] while another ranked one of its residents, Thomas Spring of Lavenham, as the wealthiest commoner in England by the time of his death in 1523.[7][8]

References
  1. Historic England. "The Guildhall  (Grade I) (1037186)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  2. "History of Lavenham Guildhall". The National Trust. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  3. "Hundreds of visitors expected at Colours to Dye For weekend in west Suffolk". Sudbury Mercury. 14 July 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  4. Betterton, Alex (1 January 1995). "The Guildhall, Lavenham". History Today. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  5. Hoskins, William George (2015). Local History in England. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138835924.
  6. "The tiny Suffolk village that was once among the richest places in England". The Telegraph. 26 June 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  7. "Lavenham Guildhall - An exceptional medieval building in Suffolk". Archaeology Travel. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  8. Walker, Greg (1988). John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780521521390.
  9. Pevsner, Nikolaus. The Buildings of England: Suffolk. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300096484.
  10. "A very crooked tea: the Crooked House, Lavenham". American Hour. 5 October 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  11. "Lavenham Guildhall". The National Trust. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  12. "Have you visited these top 25 historic places in Norfolk and Suffolk?". Ipswich Star. 8 July 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
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