Issue No 38 (Autumn 2019) on sale at Tourist Information, Harts Bookshop, Waitrose and Saffron Walden Museum, price £3, or by post – see contact on website.

CONTENTS

WW2 Evacuation in Saffron Walden: Recollections of Mary Whiteman, Voluntary Billeting Officer by Malcolm White

A Cement Works for Saffron Walden by Geoffrey Ball

Henry Winstanley’s Women by Martin Rose

Travelling rough Time… Routeways in Uttlesford Hundred from the Roman Period to the Tudors by Simon Coxall

Finding the Lost Church of Little Wenden by Robert Wilson

12th Century Live! Local History Societies in Uttlesford

Gold and Silver Treasures Acquired by Museum by Carolyn Wingfield

Christopher Payn and the Fight for Press Freedom 1792-1793 by Martyn Everett

Saffron Walden Horticultural Society Celebrates 200 Years by Jacqueline Cooper

 The Invasion of Saffron Walden: a wartime scenario

BALH Local History Award for Journal author

New Publications

History News

Journal No 33 centred on various aspects of religious history locally, prompted by the 500th anniversary since the Reformation began in 1517, and its aftermath. Subjects included: Ritual in the Pre-Reformation Church at Walden by Elizabeth Allan;  a new archaeological investigation at Tilty Abbey, one of many monastic institutions abolished at the Reformation – this was by Rachel Clarke & Maggie Stevens; the role of Sir Thomas Smith (born in Walden) in the Reformation, by Jeremy Collingwood; an extract from William Harrison’s Description of England, describing in contemporary terms how the Protestant Reformation had changed the ritual of the Church; a pioneering and important new study by Kevin Davey of the activities of Quaker radicals around the Saffron Walden area during the Protectorate; a transcript by Martyn Everett of a remarkable journal kept by a man employed in 1851 to sell Bibles to the poor in Saffron Walden district; building projects at Abbey Lane Congregational Chapel by Stephen Rapkin; memories by Michael Yarrow of his childhood experiences of attending the Plymouth Brethren meetings in Saffron Walden in the 1940s-50s; the biography of an unusual country vicar, Revd John Handson Sperling at Wicken Bonhunt, by Deborah Lowe; and a summary of how the Catholics returned to worship in Saffron Walden in the early 20th century. This very full and fascinating issue is no longer available in retail outlets, but can still be purchased from the Society at the usual price of £3 plus postage.

The Autumn 2016 issue of the Society’s journal (no 32) featured articles on the 1920-30s Hunger Marchers who came through the town; the Gold Street fire of 1941; the history of Cleales; the story of Saffron Walden Town Hall; a summary of Stansted Mountfitchet history; new documents relating to the 1862 murder case in Clavering;  and an update on history news in the locality and new publications. There are also obituaries on two fine local historians: Ken Neale and Jean Gumbrell.