Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden photos (99 available)
Saffron Walden maps (2 available)
Map of Essex
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Saffron Walden books (16 available)
Saffron Walden Town and City Memories
Paperback
Braintree Town and City Memories
Hardback
- 1 photos on Saffron Walden appear in 1 Frith books - View photos of Saffron Walden
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Saffron Walden and Essex
Saffron Walden memories
Read and share memories of Saffron Walden and Essex inspired by Frith photos
PADDLER
I have lived in Saffron Walden all my life of 50 years. I have many great memories of Saffron Walden. My greatest memories are of the time we had at the locally named Paddler. The Paddler was at the top end of Rowntree Way. The area had a Pumping Station owned by the Water Board (still there today). There was a large paddling pool, 2 large grass play areas (no longer there due to houses being built). The pool was a favourite place for families to go and have picnics and a swim, on a hot summer Sunday.
In one corner of the biggest area was a large tree, you had to climb part of the tree if you wanted to ...read more here
Contributed by ian Lench
A Patient's View
When I was eight I was admitted to Saffron Walden General Hospital for surgery. My parents were told that I would be discharged home at the end of the week. I vividly remember the feeling of being suffocated when the pad of chloroform was put over my face to anaesthetise me.
During the week a young girl was admitted to the ward with suspected Polio. She was put into a glass encased cubicle and the next day she was transferred to the isolation hospital. It was decided that all the children in the ward should be put into quarantine for three weeks, so my week turned into four! Visiting hours were restricted to a short time in the afternoon on ...read more here
Contributed by Helen Sharpe
A Meeting Place
In the 1950's the building on the right of the picture was the Corn Exchange. The local farmers used to congregate there on Tuesdays which was market day. The buiding is now used as the public library.
Market day was not only stalls on the market square, as it is today. In the 1950's I remember that there was also a livestock market just around the corner from the market square. There were sheep and cattle. Next door there were hens, rabbits and auctions took place there. Later a pig market was constructed nearby.
When my grandparents, who lived in Derbyshire, came to stay, Grandpa would take me to the market. He enjoyed it as much as I did ...read more here
Contributed by Helen Sharpe
Appeal for information
Hello
I don't have a memory as such. I am one of the current owners of the Saffron Hotel and am looking into its history and would love to hear from anyone of their memories and also any insight they can provide on its history. I have a certain amount of information obtained from census information but any other information would be greatly appreciated. We are asked so many times for the history on this great building and feel very embarrassed when we have only limited knowledge.
Many thanks
Angela Baulk
Contributed by Angela Baulk
Extracts From Saffron Walden & Essex books
The castle is a sad ruin. Alec Clifton Taylor said of it that ‘like all flint ruins, it is amorphous and wholly unpicturesque’.
An extract from from"Saffron Walden Town and City Memories".
Here we see King Street before the Post Office moved to the High Street in 1919. On the left is the fine front of the Post Office - the words can be seen below the window box on the first floor, and above is a royal coat of arms (both still remain today, though WH Smith use the premises). Outside on the pavement is the lamp-post Post Office sign. Also on the left, outside the shop to let, we can see a Stead and Simpson delivery cycle; Stead and Simpson were an early chain store selling boots and shoes, and they were here until the late 1990s. Several of the boys are in knickerbockers. To the right of the Post Office, outside the shop next door and beneath the awning, stand two policemen. The only traffic in the street is a pony and cart.
An extract from from"Saffron Walden Town and City Memories".
The Hospital opened in 1866 and was designed by William Beck. It was built on land given by the 5th Lord Braybrooke of Audley End House, and cost £5,504 to build.
An extract from from"Saffron Walden Town and City Memories".
A splendid open car heads north, driving in the middle of the road. The house on the left had belonged to Dr Atkinson, who died in 1917. The Post Office bought it for their use and moved from King Street in 1919. A lamp-post sign stands outside. Mr Whalley of Bishops Stortford bought the King Street building, and the sign on Walker’s stores on the right directs us there: ‘To Ford Service Depot, 10 King Street. Phone 62’. Along on the right is another well-advertised garage; this one is Wright’s, later to become the North Essex Motor Company. A fine private house covered with Virginia creeper stands at the corner of Church Street in the distance.
An extract from from"Saffron Walden Town and City Memories".
This old gateway in the 19th century gave access to the Taylors Arms, the building half-way up on the left, which was destroyed by fire in 1930. The passage was also the way to Hart’s printing works, which was in the shed at the end in its early days. This has always been a good spot for fly posting: here on the left we have amongst others a poster which announces a whist drive, and another tells us that Gipsy Smith is appearing in the town. On the right two notices both advertise local papers, the East Anglian and the Essex Chronicle. The plastered and pargetted room above now has no means of access and has to be reached by ladder.
An extract from from"Saffron Walden Town and City Memories".