Lavenham Guildhall

A beautiful timber-framed building, managed for the town now by the National Trust.  It was built for the Guild of Corpus Christi, a charitable merchant organisation, in 1529.  Lavenham was famous for its wool blue-dyed cloth which made it one of the richest towns in England.  Over the next century the woollen cloth trade declined and the building became a prison then a workhouse before being acquired and restored by the local MP in the late 19th century.

The church in the extra is Holy Trinity in the adjacent village of Long Melford and is considered the finest church in Suffolk.  It was built in the late 15th century also with riches gained from the wool trade and is as big as a cathedral.