Lavenham

Lavenham's timber-framed houses and imposing church bear witness to the wealth of a Suffolk cloth town. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries its merchants prospered from woollen manufacture, especially the blue broadcloth sold to buyers abroad. The church of St Peter and St Paul, with its lofty tower, was rebuilt during this prosperous age with support from wealthy clothiers.

Prosperity brought tensions as well as fine buildings. In 1525 workers gathered in protest against taxation and unemployment, part of the opposition to Henry VIII's demands for money. Around the same time the Guildhall of Corpus Christi rose beside the busy town market place. As the cloth trade later declined, the grand houses and guildhall remained reminders of Lavenham's earlier fortunes.