St Mary the Virgin, Saffron Walden St Mary the Virgin, Saffron Walden St Mary the Virgin is the parish church of Saffron Walden, Essex. It is the largest non-cathedral church in Essex with an overall length of and the spire, high, which is the tallest in Essex. It was designated as a Grade I listed building in 1951. A Norman church was recorded in 1130, which in turn had replaced an earlier wooden structure. The building as it currently stands dates predominantly from a rebuilding between 1250 and 1258, with a further rebuilding in the Perpendicular style begun in about 1450, the latter stages supervised by
Saffron Walden (horse) stallion in Japan and Ireland with limited success as a sire of winners. Saffron Walden was a bay horse with a small white star and a white coronet on his right hind foot bred in France by Stavros Niarchos. Niarchos died a month after the colt was foaled and the horse then entered the ownership of the Niarchos family. In October 1997 the yearling was offered for sale at Goffs and was bought for IR£1,200,000 by the Dermot "Demi" OByrne on behalf of John Magnier's Coolmore organisation. During his racecourse career he was owned by Susan Magnier and trained by