Lavenham, often called “the finest medieval town in England”, is situated in south Suffolk, East Anglia; the little town is the perfect English countryside historic town, with its quiet village.

A symbol of Lavenham’s medieval power is the Lavenham Guild Hall, dominating the town market square, a National Trust site, built around 1530 as a gathering place for the Guild of Corpus Christi. This was rather a Catholic religious organization, not a professional guild. The Guildhall was used for different purposes, as a town hall, a workhouse, and even as a prison. Today the Lavenham Guildhall holds the town history museum, telling its story of wool and transient wealth inside the rooms of rich wood and latticed windows.

There is a nursery rhyme that goes “there was a crooked man, who lived in a crooked house”; this verse comes from Lavenham. The Crooked House of Lavenham can be found on High Street; this road used to connect the manors of Overhall and Netherhall, the first two manors of the DeVeres. From the outside the building is crooked, but once inside the house, visitors realize the indoors are also crooked; the walls, the windows, as well as the floors. It is really difficult to walk from one room to the next, without holding on to something; some people have experienced nausea when inside the house. Across from the Crooked House is the Greyhound Inn, and next door the former “Pig and Whistle” for the emblems of the DeVere’s the boar and the whistle of the Lord High Admiral.

However, on High Street there is also another historical building, the The Swan Hotel at Lavenham; parts of the hotel take up a former guild building, the Wool Hall. The Swan Hotel was a busy coaching inn during the 1800s; the back of the hotel has a courtyard that once was used as stables for fifty horses and it is now a garden for the restaurant. During World War II, near Lavenham, there was an air field for American bombers making daylight bombing raids in B24 Liberators over Germany. The earlier air base is now mostly weeds, but the fliers from the 487th Bomb Group stationed at Lavenham have left their names on the wall of the Old Bar in the Swan Hotel. A picture of the 8th Air Force commander General Frederick Castle, whose headquarters was in nearby Bury St Edmonds, is still hanging by the fireplace.

Other historic hotels in the heart of Lavenham are The Great House Restaurant and Hotel and The Angel Hotel. The Great House Restaurant and Hotel is in the former residence of a wealthy weaving family; it has been called “Britain’s best restaurant with rooms” and its restaurant regarded as one of the best in East Anglia. The Angel Hotel, across the market square is Lavenham’s oldest pub and inn, first licensed in 1420, most recently renovated in the 1990s.

Besides hotels, restaurants, and pubs, High Street also offers many souvenirs shops, boutiques, and information centers for tourists.

Lavenham is best reached by car. The main streets can become pretty busy with traffic, especially on weekends when the town is visited by many tourists. There are parking lots at the edges of town when the street spaces and square are packed with vintage sports cars on outing. By public transportation the nearest rail stations are Sudbury and Bury St Edmunds with bus service to Lavenham.

Visiting Lavenham is a great experience as it gives tourists a chance of walking through ancient buildings and very old streets; many people who have had the opportunity of vacationing in Lavenham, or even stopping by, have agreed that walking in Lavenham is like jumping back into Middle Ages.