Saffron Walden silver maces were bought by the corporation in 1549 to commemorate the granting of a new town charter by Edward VI. This purchase is recorded in the town's Guild of Holy Trinity accounts and reads, ""For 2 new maces, weying 18 ownces one quarter and half at 8s. the ownce 7l.7s"". The 12th-century Walden Castle, built or expanded by Geoffrey de Mandeville, the first Earl of Essex, is in ruins. After the medieval period, the castle fell into disuse and much of the flint was taken and used in the construction of local houses and the wall surrounding the Audley
Saffron Walden Grammar School Mayor Thomas Bradbury (d.1510); her brother, John Leche, was the Rector of Saffron Walden. The grammar school by its constitution was for the benefit of the town and three villages in its vicinity. Joan and her brother, along with the local abbot and monastery, arranged its endowment with local guilds. They erected a school house and school room and Dame Joan "granted a rent charge for the support of a priest and to teach the children grammar after the order and use of Winchester and Eton." In some histories, the school is deemed the successor of the 1423 establishment and