Lavenham Guildhall

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Lavenham Guildhall is a timber-framed town hall in Lavenham, Suffolk, England. It is a Grade I listed building.

In the late 1300s, Lavenham grew rich from wool and a blue dye called Lavenham Blue. Four guilds formed, the most important being the Guild of Corpus Christi in 1529, which built the guildhall. The building features jettied timber framing and a central gabled porch on the north-west side.

Its use changed over time: by 1689 it was a bridewell (jail), and from 1787 it became a workhouse. Behind the guildhall, prison cells and mortuary buildings were added in 1833.

In 1887 Sir Cuthbert Quilter bought it and began restoring it, finishing around 1911. During World War II it served as a social club for American troops and as a British Restaurant. In 1946 Sir William Quilter gave it to the people of Lavenham. It became National Trust property in 1951 and opened to the public as a local history museum.

Inside, there are exhibits about the guildhall’s history and items from Lavenham railway station, which was on the Long Melford–Bury St Edmunds line until 1961.