saffron
walden
historical society

Featured image for “Diary of a Victorian Gardener”
December 31, 2025 • posted in Recommended Reading

Diary of a Victorian Gardener

Working class diaries from the 19th century are uncommon, but this one is of particular importance as it was kept by one of the gardeners at Audley End.
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Featured image for “A Millers’ Tale”
December 30, 2025 • posted in Articles

A Millers’ Tale

In 1798 two children were born, one in Saffron Walden and the other in Elmdon, who would eventually marry and start a chain of events which would link transportation and the treadmill to bakers and mayors of this Essex market town
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Featured image for “A penny for your Thoughts”
December 23, 2025 • posted in Articles

A penny for your Thoughts

At the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, Henry Hart, printer and bookseller, began to issue his Saffron Walden Year Books, price one penny. The earliest of these in the Town Library is dated 1853
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Featured image for “The Marquis d’Oisy: Aesthete, Eccentric and Enigma”
December 18, 2025 • posted in Articles

The Marquis d’Oisy: Aesthete, Eccentric and Enigma

On a warm summer’s afternoon in 1917, the London to Cambridge train pulled up at Elsenham station. From out of the First Class carriage stepped the train’s only passenger: a tall, thin gentleman with an aristocratic bearing, his black greying hair rustling slightly in the breeze.
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Featured image for “Malt Stealing Case in Saffron Walden, 1833”
December 14, 2025 • posted in Articles

Malt Stealing Case in Saffron Walden, 1833

In 1833, Saffron Walden was gripped by scandal as a malt-thieving scam of enormous proportions unfolded. The story has already been summarised in print, and what is given here is an abbreviated transcript in chronological order of some of the major archives relating to this unprecedented and very complicated court case.
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Featured image for “Little Walden: The Medieval Park”
December 9, 2025 • posted in Articles

Little Walden: The Medieval Park

Deer parks were an established landscape feature in medieval Essex. It has been stated by Oliver Rackham that about 160 medieval parks were known to have existed within the county at different times which represents one to every 9.6 square miles.
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Featured image for “A Gold Coin and a Forgery: Iron Age and Roman Discoveries from a field walk in Littlebury Parish”
December 4, 2025 • posted in Articles

A Gold Coin and a Forgery: Iron Age and Roman Discoveries from a field walk in Littlebury Parish

Within the parish of Littlebury and close by at Catmere End, flints, prehistoric pottery, Iron Age remains and artefacts of the Roman period have come to light
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Featured image for “John Harvey’s Carved Mantlepiece (c.1570): an early instance of the use of Alciato emblems in England”
November 29, 2025 • posted in Articles

John Harvey’s Carved Mantlepiece (c.1570): an early instance of the use of Alciato emblems in England

A substantial mansion in the centre of town had been the dwelling of John Harvey (d. 1593), yeoman farmer, master rope-maker, and father of the English renaissance scholar and poet Gabriel Harvey (c.1550-1650).
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Featured image for “Eglantyne Jebb”
November 25, 2025 • posted in Articles

Eglantyne Jebb

Eglantyne Jebb moved to Cambridge in 1901, making a new start after a disastrous stint as a teacher, and to be close to her uncle Richard Claverhouse Jebb, Chair of Greek, and MP, at the university.
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