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Photo: Jim Linwood, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
St Mary the Virgin is the largest church in Essex, and larger than some English cathedrals. Its spire towers 193 ft (59 m) above the entrance. A stone church dates back to at least 1130 and was rebuilt several times — in the 1200s and 1400s. Former MP R A "Rab" Butler (1902-1982), architect of the Education Act 1944, is buried in the churchyard.
St Mary the Virgin is the parish church of Saffron Walden, Essex. It is the largest non-cathedral church in Essex with an overall length of 183 feet (56 m) and a spire 193 feet (59 m) high, which is the tallest in Essex. It was designated as a Grade I listed building in 1951.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
2.7-hectare ornamental Dutch garden with a hedge maze, laid out from 1828, and restored to its 1870s heyday.
Magnificent "prodigy" house: as Elizabeth I toured the country, nobles vied to create mansions suitable for her and all the courtiers and retinue. This house, created from the dissolved Walden Abbey, did so in 1578. "I know, I'll smash it all down and make a much bigger one" reasoned the Earl of Suffolk. He hosted King James I here, the least he could do since he'd embezzled royal funds to pay for it. Charles II owned it for a time. Over the 18th century Sir John Vanbrugh whittled it down to a third of its sprawl, and this is the version you see nowadays. Capability Brown landscaped the gardens. The "Temple of Concord" seen east is a mock-ruin built in 1791 to celebrate King George III's recovery from insanity, which didn't last long but they kept the "folly".