Geograph - photograph every grid square

This square is the south-western part of Saffron Walden, a market town that was the centre of a large manor held by Esger before the Norman Conquest and later by the powerful Geoffrey Mandeville, Earl of Essex. The name was simply Waledana, indicating a Romano-British settlement renamed by the Anglo-Saxons, and Saffron was added later when the town became a centre for the growing and marketing of saffron from autumn crocuses.

The B1052, London Road and Newport Road, passes through the square, and from it Audley End Road branches to the west. Audley End is a house that is part of the largest mansion built in Jacobean times, most of which has been demolished. This was on the site of a Benedictine abbey given by Henry VIII to Sir Thomas Audley. Near the junction between these two roads is the subject of the only image for this square on the site so far, a hospital built in 1863-6 and designed by William Beck. It is a display of yellow decorative features on red brick, with the usual Victorian mixture of Gothic and other styles. It is now the council offices.

TL5337 : Saffron Walden Hospital, Essex

Back in 1881 (6in map on old-maps.co.uk) there were only a few large houses around here and most of the land was still fields. The parkland in the north-western corner is still there, and the steep hillside above Fulfen Slade is undeveloped, but there is a large school and a sports centre south of Audley End Road, and suburban development on the west side of Newport Road, and in a big block between the eastern side and the next through road, Debden Road and Pleasant Valley, which was important enough to have milestones.

The Friends' (Quaker) School on this road at TL538379. It was founded in 1702, moved to Croyden in 1825 and back to new building on this site in 1879 (it just missed being drawn on the 1881 map, which shows a covered reservoir on the site). Opposite the school is a terrace of houses called Mount Pleasant Cottages. In 1881 these overlooked fields where there is now a factory called Tudor Works.

The line of the disused railway can still be seen on the 1:25000 map, not marked as a cycling route as yet. The goods shed at TL539379 has gone, but there is a development called. On the east side of Debden Road at TL538379 there was a small school on the 1881 map, now redeveloped or converted to houses with the street name 'Old School Yard'. Finally there was a Baptist Chapel on London Road at TL536379; it is now called 'The Old Chapel'.

Plenty of scope for more images!