Saffron Walden Cestreforda to the north. After the Norman invasion of 1066, a stone church was built. Walden Castle, dating from about 1140, may have been built on pre-existing fortifications. A priory, Walden Abbey, was founded under the patronage of Geoffrey de Mandeville, first Earl of Essex about 1136, on the site of what is now Audley End village. The abbey was separated from Walden by Holywell Field. After the dissolution of the monasteries, Sir Thomas Audley converted its cloisters into a dwelling. Later this became the site of Audley End House. The market was moved from nearby Newport to Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden years Dame Bradbury paid the salary of the schoolmaster herself until the school was endowed in 1535. Friends' School, renamed Walden School, was a co-educational Quaker independent school with roots dating back to 1702. Its final building, in Mount Pleasant Road, opened in 1879. On 11 May 2017 it was announced that Walden School would close at the end of the 2016–17 school year. Its final day was 7 July 2017. Saffron Walden College, a teachers' training college for women, closed in 1977. Saffron Walden is served by Audley End railway station, which is located outside the town in the