Thaxted

Thaxted is a town in the Essex countryside. Despite its small feel and rural character, the town and its surrounding villages are bursting with culture. Various town organisations put together a calendar of musical events, which take place throughout the year. Stallholders set up shop in Town Street on Fridays - market day.

Understand
Thaxted sits between the larger towns of Saffron Walden and Great Dunmow. The town's existence is recorded in the Domesday Book, and according to the parish council, it expanded rapidly in the 1300s, becoming a centre for the cutlery trade. A Guild of Clothiers was thought to have been founded in 1583, when the town may have been a centre for weaving.

Composer Gustav Holst lived in the town, in the building now known as "The Manse". He first visited Thaxted in 1913 and later moved there, befriending the town's Christian Socialist vicar Reverend Conrad Noel. Holst founded the town's Whitsun Festival during the First World War, in 1916. The town lends its name to his composition "Thaxted" - part of the "Jupiter" movement in Holst's 1917 suite The Planets. In 1921, a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice was set to the tune "Thaxted", to create the song "I Vow to Thee, My Country".

The Great Bardfield Artists lived and stayed in the nearby village of Great Bardfield - among them John Aldridge, Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious, and Sheila Robinson. Their work and styles are celebrated in the Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden.

By car
Local roads connects Thaxted with the surrounding towns and villages, including Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow and Stansted Mountfitchet. Major roads nearby include:


 * the M11 (London - Cambridge) - via junction 8 (Stansted Airport), or via junction 10 (Duxford) from the north;
 * the A11 - from Newmarket and Norwich;
 * the A120 - from Stansted Airport, Braintree and Colchester.

By bus
Bus routes include:


 * 314 - Great Dunmow and Saffron Walden;
 * 316 - Saffron Walden and Stansted Airport.

By air

 * is approximately from Thaxted, with bus and road connections to the town.

By train
There are no railway stations in Thaxted. Nearby railway stations are a short drive away from Thaxted:


 * - local services by Greater Anglia;
 * - local services by Greater Anglia and Stansted Express fast trains towards Bishop's Stortford, Harlow and London;
 * - local services by Greater Anglia;
 * - local and fast trains by Greater Anglia, with connections to London, Cambridge, Ely and Norwich.

Get around
Thaxted is a small town with most attractions within walking distance of local car parks. Countryside footpaths and rural roads connect Thaxted with nearby villages.

Go next

 * Saffron Walden - a historic market town near Thaxted, complete with a historic house and gardens at Audley End, market, concert hall (at Saffron Hall), shops and restaurants
 * Cambridge is a world-famous university city, less than an hour's drive from Thaxted
 * Colchester - which lays claim to Britain's first city