Saffron Walden Grammar School Saffron Walden Grammar School Saffron Walden Free Grammar School (or Saffron Walden Grammar School) was a school in the Essex town of Saffron Walden, which for over four hundred years educated the boys of the town and surrounding villages in a manner designed to be after the model of Eton College and Winchester. It was notable for its longevity and for some of its illustrious alumni. The earliest schools in Walden dated from 1423 under the control of the neighbouring monastery. The Grammar School was founded by Dame Joan Bradbury in 1522. Lady Joan was the wife of London’s Lord
Saffron Walden of housing estates in the 1970s and 1980s. Saffron Walden's unofficial coat of arms showed the saffron crocus within the walls of the castle in the form of an heraldic pun – as in, "Saffron walled-in". In 1961, a formal coat of arms was granted by the College of Arms and this was adapted in 1974 into its current form. The town has three ceremonial maces. The large mace was given to Saffron Walden by James II in 1685 and provides an early recording of the unofficial coat of arms. Made of silver gilt, it is approximately long. Two smaller