Lavenham Guildhall

Lavenham Guildhall is a distinctive timber-framed Tudor building dating from about 1529. It is overlooks and dominates the little market square of this almost unspoilt medieval town.

The upper floor is jettied out over the lower and both are lit with oriel windows. The exposed woodwork is limewashed silver-grey and the building as a whole is supported by a substantial brick and rubble plinth.

The hall was built by the Guild of Corpus Christi. They were one of three guilds founded in Lavenham to regulate the wool trade, which had flourished in Suffolk for two centuries. The carving of rampant lions on the doorpost of the hall is the emblem of the Guild.

The Guild was also concerned to celebrate the festivals of the Church and on feast days they processed from their fine half-timbered hall to the church. Some festivals, including Corpus Christi, were celebrated in the hall itself.

The Guild was dissolved around 30 years later by Henry VIII, who disapproved of its religious associations and the Guildhall became parish property.

Through most of the 17th century the building was used as the town hall.

It then became at different times a prison, a workhouse and a wool store. During World War II it housed evacuees.

The interior suffered once the Guild was dissolved and little of the original panelling has survived. The little room above the porch is still lined with linenfold panelling and this gives an indication of how the rest of the building must have looked.

The exterior has survived in better condition, although the wood carving is badly weathered.

Lavenham Guildhall was rescued in 1887 by Sir Cuthbert Quilter who undertook the restoration of the building.

In 1951 his son, with the aid of the Lavenham Preservation Society, gave the Guildhall to the National Trust.

Today the warren of small rooms on the upper floor houses a local museum dedicated to Lavenham and the wool trade.