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 (color) Saffron (color) Saffron is an orange color, resembling the color of the tip of the saffron crocus thread, from which the spice saffron is derived. The first recorded use of "saffron" as a color name in English was in 1200. It is considered as the most important colour in Hinduism, in which it is known as Bhagwa. The color has some significance in Buddhism; it is worn by the monks of the Theravada tradition. It is also an important symbolic color in India, where it was chosen in 1947 as one of the three colors of the Indian flag after