Baron Howard de Walden heir to the title. The principal estate owned by previous barons – Audley End House at Saffron Walden in Essex – which had been obtained by Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk from his maternal grandfather Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley was separated from the title, when it was left by the 4th Baron Howard de Walden & 1st Baron Braybrooke to his relative Richard Aldworth Neville, 2nd Baron Braybrooke. Due to their substantial Central London landholdings, known as the Howard de Walden Estate, the Howard de Walden family is one of the wealthiest in Britain, with a net worth
Saffron Walden households, 8.4 per cent co-habiting couples, and 7.9 per cent single parents with children. Of those aged 16–74, 22.3 per cent had no academic qualifications, close to the average for Uttlesford (22.0 per cent) and below that for the whole of England (28.9 per cent). In the 2001 UK census, 73.0 per cent of Saffron Walden residents declared themselves Christian, 0.6 per cent Muslim, 0.4 per cent Buddhist, 0.2 per cent Jewish, and 0.1 per cent Hindu. The census recorded 17.6 per cent as having no religion, 0.4 per cent with an alternative religion, and 7.8 per cent not stating