Laurie Barker, who has died aged 71, was a remarkable man whose legacy to NW Essex history deserves wider recognition. He came from Walthamstow and lived in West Hampstead, but his ancestors were from this area, mainly Hadstock and Saffron Walden, and it was Barker family history which initially brought him to do research in the town. For a man

Local historian, Mrs Emily Irene Cranwell died at her home in Chrishall in January, just a few weeks short of  her 100th birthday. Born Irene White at Clavering in 1910, she lived at Place Farm where her father worked. She left the village on her marriage in 1935, and had lived in the same cottage at Chrishall ever since. Irene

Charles Waite, who died on 3 December 2009 at the age of 90, was Chairman of the Saffron Walden Historical Society for twelve years from 1987 to 1999.  When he retired as Chairman, he was made an Honorary Vice-President of the Society in recognition of all his services to it. Charles was born and grew up in North London, raised

Dick Lloyd, who died in August aged 89, was one of those historians whose legacy far outweighed public awareness of what he had achieved – indeed there are probably many involved in the history of Essex who did not know him, for he quietly beavered away in the background, campaigning for various local history causes. It is to him, in

A great friend of Adrian Gibson, the well-known Clavering historian, Eileen M. Ludgate, died in July 2006 at the age of 81. In the 1970s-80s Eileen brought Adrian to Clavering, where he discovered the true antiquity of The Bury manor house, as a rare medieval aisled hall. Eileen, who came with her sister Joan to Stickling Green in 1958, was

 Adrian Gibson, MBE, who died at the age of 74 in March 2006, was a noted architectural historian and the foremost authority of his time on the study of timber-framed buildings, sharing his expertise freely with many local historians and societies in NW Essex and beyond. After retirement from teaching, he was invited in 1988 to re-organise the descriptions of

John Hunter, the noted landscape historian, died suddenly on 2 July 2005, at the age of 73, while tending the garden at his home in Town Street, Thaxted. A memorial service in Thaxted Church was attended by huge numbers of those who worked with him in the many facets of his varied life. His son Richard spoke of how John

Olive Cook, writer, historian, artist and passionate campaigner died on 2 May 2002 at Radwinter Road Hospital. She was one of the positive forces in our small community and her death has impoverished this little town. Olive has been a quintessential English woman who loved her native land in an informed and all embracing way and was prepared to fight

Note the cover painting in this issue by renowned local artist Brian Sanders, as it was commissioned to illustrate two of the articles concerning railways in our locality. Articles in this issue include: Railways around Saffron Walden-a Friends school ‘train spotter’ from the 1950’s Peter Jamieson The Closure of Audley End to Bartlow Branch Line Malcolm White A True Portrait

SWHS Publications no 3 (2012), ed. Jacqueline Cooper, 72 pages. ISBN 978-1-873669-08-2, price £7.50 One of Saffron Walden’s most distinguished sons, Sir Thomas Smith was the first Regius Professor of Civil Law, and Vice-Chancellor, at Cambridge, Provost of Eton, Principal Secretary of State to Edward VI and Elizabeth I, ambassador to France and the Low Countries, Privy Councillor, and –

SWHA Publications no 2 (2011), ed. Jacqueline Cooper, 100 pages. ISBN 978-1-873669-04-4, price £8.50 The author, when Saffron Walden Town Clerk, often advised on the naming of new streets, as had another former Town Clerk, Cliff Stacey. The Town Council liked to use old field names as this helped to perpetuate the town’s history. A primary source for the book