They were an organised society able to produce luxury goods such as the gold torcs found at Ipswich.

He wrote that one of his opponents was King Diviciacus of the Suessiones in Belgic Gaul and that he previously had control over a large area of Britain. This supports the idea of close links between Britain and Belgica around this time.

Large settlements with earthworks were established.

There would seem to have been some connection between the two tribes at this time, but it became closer a few years later.

Cunobelin is generally considered to have also later ruled the Trinovantes, but whether he conquered them or had some legitimate claim which was recognised by that tribe, we do not know.

During his long and powerful rule he issued large numbers of gold, silver and bronze coins of increasingly Romanised designs. About one million of his gold "corn-ear" staters were produced. They have the letters CAMV with an ear of corn on one side and a horse design with CVN on the other.

This expansion and the death of the great Cunobelin may have led the emperor Claudius to consider an invasion, in order to restore Roman authority. Claudius was also looking for a military triumph to cement his tenuous hold on power in Rome.

In Norfolk and north Suffolk, the Iceni decided not to fight and signed a peace treaty with Claudius. In return their king Prasutagus was allowed to rule as a 'client' king. This was normal Roman practice, if at all possible.

Under King Prasutagus, the Iceni coinage became romanised. The horse became more realistic and less stylised, the face became a bust rather than a mask. The inscription has been said to read SVB RI PRASTO ESICO FECIT or "under King Prasto, Esico made me". This inscription has recently been called into question.

The rebellion of Boudica against the Romans brought reprisals and the firm establishment of Roman rule. Roman reprisals were at first extreme. Peddars Way was built from Chelmsford through Long Melford and Ixworth and towards the Wash at Holme-next-the-Sea. Another road probably ran North of the Stour from Long Melford to Clare and Haverhill and on to Cambridge.

Around this time fifty gold coins supposedly bearing the head of Prasutagus (Boadicea's husband) were buried on the Chalkstone Hills and were to be discovered by labourers in 1787. It would be interesting to examine these coins in the light of modern knowledge, as this is not in an area usually associated with the Iceni. It is possible that they could have been hidden before the battle with the IXth Legion.

The main road through Cambridge, the Via Devana which originated in Chester, has been traced as far as Withersfield, and may have gone on through Haverhill to Long Melford and Colchester.

What Haverhill's fate was during this turbulent period is not clear. Being on the frontier of East Anglia, however, would not make for a quiet time for the inhabitants.

This raises the question of whether Haverhill existed as anything more than a small hamlet at this time. Otherwise one might have expected it to have been chosen for the site of the fort.

The name Sturmer seems to derive from a lake or mere on the River Stour, or Stourmere. This mere was a source of fish and remained quite large until the 18th century.

The first material evidence of a continuing settlement of any size at Haverhill comes from excavations carried out in 1997. The Hertfordshire Archaeological Trust examined 355 graves at the southern end of Crowland Road. None of these skeletons seem to date earlier than 1000.

Once again there is no mention of Haverhill in these tales.

The old Roman road, later called the Via Devana, had by this time probably been diverted to the extent that it ran along Queen Street and High Street. The Burton Enders probably set up stalls along the road to sell provisions to travellers, as it was about halfway between Cambridge and Sudbury. Pack animals needed to be fed and watered, and it became known as the place where oats were grown, or in Old English, Haver Hill.

The population, however, was small and out of the 54 male inhabitants only 19 were free men. There were 25 smallholders and "always ten slaves", and 27 pigs were recorded.

An excavation was carried out by the Hertford Archaeological Trust at the southern end of Crowland Road, Haverhill, in March to May 1997. An ancient burial ground was uncovered belonging to Haverhill's first church at Burton End. A total of 355 individual graves were found with evidence of coffins and 'pillow stones'. There was also some late Saxon and early mediaeval pottery. The skeletons revealed most people in Haverhill lived to the age of 45, suffered from osteo-arthritis and dental disease.
The new development built on the site preserves its history in the name Overchurch Close.

The Priory at Castle Acre in West Norfolk was founded by William Warenne earlier in the century. The family were very wealthy and had links to the Clare family and the priory at Stoke by Clare. This meant that the Haverhill churches would have paid dues to Castle Acre, and that the parsons would have been appointed to Haverhill by the Warenne family.

By the twelfth century there were manors at Haverhill, Horsham and Hanchett, and the castle although no direct evidence of this building until 1373, may well have been merely a fortified manor house rather than a fully-fledged military establishment.

The High Street was originally twice as wide as it is today, in order to accomodate stalls. However, like most market places, eventually the stalls were replaced by buildings and the open area thus encroached upon. It seems that the west side has been the most encroached upon.

This written evidence confirms that both places of worship were dedicated to St Mary, and that it is unlikely that there ever was a dedication to St Botolph.

For the next 300 years there were two churches, less than half a mile part. Burton End church was called Upper, or Bovetown (ie above town) Church, while the market place church was called Lowerchurch. Eventually in 1551 people decided they could maintain the old church no longer and petitioned King Edward VI to remove it. No trace of it remains.

It seems likely that he was a descendant of Bryhtmarus, who had moved up to London from Haverhill around 1158. The family seems to have been very wealthy over a long period of years.
William seems to have been a favourite of the King.

William was buried in old St Paul's Cathedral, which was burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666.

Castle Manor at Haverhill thus passed to the Staffords.

Her kidnappers included the vicars of Sawston, Stapleford and Heydon, and she was released when a ransom was paid.

The largest payer was Alice Chaunterel at 12 shillings, followed by Hugo Dandele at 10 shillings and Annor Simond at 5 shillings and 7 pence farthing.

One Godfrey of Chevelstone was involved in the purchase of a mill at Stonmelsbrigge. Chevelstone seems to have been Coupals, and the mill was at Stone mill bridge, but where that was is unknown.

The supposed site of The Castle is now a recreational area with the newt pond, possibly ancient, and play equipment.

The first mention is made of a shop in Haverhill. It is managed by John le Baxtere, who paid 3d rent.

This may mean that churchyard at Burton End ceased to be used, and burials were all done at the chapel in the market place after this date.
Around the middle of the 14th century, Haverhill was starting its ascent to being one of the lesser wool towns of Suffolk. It was close to Clare and Lavenham, and may have been rather more important in this regard than today we might suppose.

St Mary's church had further improvements made to it in this century.

There were two guildhalls, one near the old church at Burton End, and one was on the site of the Post Office.

William Wytchbawde was fined 3d (1p) for allowing his dunghill to "lye in the market place amongst the stalls to the great annoyance of the whole towne".

A riot in the streets between Michael Matthew and Robert Cornwall and their supporters was considered so serious that it was taken up in the Star Chamber Court at Westminster.

In November 1538 the King's agent Richard Ingworth arrived at Clare to receive the surrender of Clare Priory from the Austin Friars. The friars were pensioned off like many other houses, and that was that, except that in this case, the Augustine Order would return to the same spot in 1953.

Withersfield managed to find 11 men and Hundon 13.

Anne of Cleves, the unfortunate fourth wife of Henry VIII, arrived in England in 1539 and married the King in 1540, though the marriage was never consummated. By July she was officially divorced. In January 1541, she was given the parsonage house at Haverhill, and the right to appoint clergy. She also received a large amount of property in Sussex, Essex and other counties. She never came to Haverhill, preferring to live at Lewes, Sussex. It is probable that the parsonage given to Anne was burnt down in the fire in Haverhill in 1667. The house which today bears her name and is probably the finest building in the town today, was built in 1480, and did not become a vicarage until much later. It seemed to acquire the name of Anne of Cleves House as late as 1967, when it was put up for sale by an enterprising estate agent. It was recently occupied by American security firm HID Corporation Limited, but was on the market again in 2002.

May 12th 1551: "...Whereas the inhabitants of Haverhille, Suffolk, have informed the King that of the two churches in that town which are situated not far from each other, that the one called the Overchurche alias Bovetownechurch (Botolph) is too small to hold all the parishioners, and is difficult to access; whereas the other church called Netherchurch (St Marys) is large enough for all, and conveniently situated, that the inhabitants are not able to repair and maintain two churches, and that the patron and rector of the said litte church agree to its dissolution ... and unite the parishioners to the Netherchurche which shall then be the parish church of the whole town, and its rector shall have the tithes and profits previously enjoyed by the Rector of the Overchurche."

The Barnardistons of Kedington were leading officers in Cromwell's army and the whole area supported Parliament against the King in the Civil Wars.

Dowsing also destroyed all the old stained glass.

In 1655 however, George Fox the Quaker leader alienated his movement from the mainstream even further when he refused to pay church tithes and the Poor Law rates.

Six weeks later George Harrison died and the record book of the Society of Friends recorded "whose blood will be charged upon thee, O Haverhill".

Names like Duddery Hill reflect an old established clothing trade. A dud was a coarse woollen cloth or shawl or wrap used by village people. The slang word "duds" used for clothes, derives from this word, but survives more in America than Britain.

Similar evictions occurred elsewhere, including Henry Havers the Rector of Stambourne in Essex, an incident commemorated in the poem "The Market Town", by John Webb.

Another incident of that momentous year involved a mother and daughter, Mistress and Miss Boram, who were hanged at Bury St Edmunds as witches.

You can see this token and more 17th Century tokens from the Haverhill area, (fronts and backs), by clicking here:
Seventeenth Century Tokens.

You can see this token and more 17th Century tokens from the Haverhill area, (fronts and backs), by clicking here:
Seventeenth Century Tokens.

The house of Joseph Addy became the presbyterian meeting place in Haverhill. This congregation would become the Independent Congregational church in the next century.

Kirby gave the following description of Haverhill:
"Haverhill, or as in old records Haverhull or Haverel, is a long thorough-fare mean built town about a mile in length. The south end of the street is part in this County, and part in Essex. The north end is wholly in Suffolk. It has a mean market weekly on Wednesdays, and two fairs yearly, the one on May the 1st, and the other on August the 15th. Here is nothing in this town worthy of remark, at present: but it seems to have been larger than it is now, by the ruins of a church or chapel, still remaining."

The town was surrounded by huge open fields, and the ancient strip system is still shown as being in operation. By 1820 the Enclosure Acts had swept this system away.

Checks would be used for aprons, curtains, hangings, counterpanes and gowns. The most popular was the Proud Pannell Check. Fustians were stronger and used in mens clothing, while the linseys were for womens clothes.

In Suffolk, weaving was still practiced as a cottage industry. Handlooms were worked at home, sometimes by agricultural workers to supplement their wages. Master Weavers were middlemen who "put out" work to the cottagers, then collected up the cloth, and acted as distributor of the heavy cloth to be made into agricultural workers clothing. Material was sent to tailors and drapers in East Anglia and East London by Gurton.

From 1785 to 1815 there was a long running shortage of small change. When the Napoleonic war started, what small coins there were in circulation were recalled to help the war effort. Many tradesmen adopted the idea of producing their own tokens in lieu of change. These were soon being manufactured on some scale in Birmingham in a range of patterns, usually for half pennies or penny values.

Both faces of this token can be seen, together with other local tokens, by clicking here: Eighteenth Century Tokens

Another idea is that Ann Suckling attempted to stop the Newmarket Coach from horseback, possibly to rob it, possibly to meet a lover. However, the guard shot her dead, and her ghost supposedly stalks the Lane named after her, still on horseback.

"As to the argument you advanced to show poverty is confined to a particular class of persons who bring themselves into that state by mere indolence, I think the town in which you reside affords ample conviction of the contrary, in which are numbers who have but a scanty allowance of the necessaries of life, and this owning to the scanty pittance allowed them by their well-fed masters."

The manufacture of checks and fustians was now hit by competition from the power looms of the north. This would lead to the rise of other textiles like silks and drabbets in Haverhill.

"To Mr John Webb, on reading his poetry.
Oh tuneful Webb, skilled genius, blest with such poetic fire,
Sure, every page of thines the best that fancy can inspire.
O what could equal the reward (had I poetic skill)
Of having praise from such a bard - The bard of Haverhill"

Sir George Beaumont (1753 to 1827) owned property in Haverhill and was a widely known patron and supporter of the Romantic poets and artists like Wilkie and Landseer. He owned Ann of Cleves House and at least some of his property included the site of the 20th century Haverhill sewage works, and £100 a year of the proceeds from this land was later paid to William Wordsworth as an annuity. The Beaumont family seat was Stonehall in Dunmow, Essex, but in 1800 he rebuilt Coleorton Hall and in the London season would move to Grosvenor Square.

The old Market House, where tolls were paid, was destroyed. The site would later be used for the Corn Exchange.

A map of the town dated 1820 shows that the great open fields of a century earlier had been swept away. The Enclosure movement had resulted in a new landscape of smaller, hedged fields, one which was familiar to people of Haverhill in the 1960's. Some old routes had been replaced by new, more direct roads. To beautify the changes, and perhaps to help give them a permanence, many of the roads had become lined with Poplars by 1820.

One such throwing mill was established at Glemsford, which would be employing 200 hands by the 1870s.

The Strict Baptist Chapel was in Downs Passage, on land bought in 1827. By 1964 the Passage had become called Upper Downs Slade.

The Market Cross and weighbridge were removed from the town centre.

Before 1826 the workers were "very respectable in their apparel", but now "many of them have sunk into a degraded and dissipated state."

The first savings bank was established in the town.

The majority of the population were illiterate, working either on the land or on hand looms in their own homes. Housing was insanitary for the labouring classes, lacking running water or proper drainage. Local affairs were run by the Parish Vestry whose main business was administration of the Poor Laws. Streets were unpaved and unlit.

The Infirmary was built behind the shops in Queen Street, in the area which is now Car Parking and the Library. It was to serve the lame and sick poor from the Workhouse on the other side of Queen Street. The Workhouse stood on Union Square which is replaced today by Queens Square precinct of shops.

The population had now grown to 2,159, about twice what it was in 1801.

The Haverhill Enclosure Act was passed by Parliament in 1854. This was another blow to the common man as some landlords could now enclose and fence off common lands or areas where people may have gathered firewood or grazed animals, or caught rabbits in the past. A survey of 1737 had recorded Rookwood Common, Small Millfield Common, Broadcroft Common, Millfield Common and Westfield Common around Haverhill.

This, and the coming of the railways in 1863-65, laid the foundations for increasing job security and prosperity for the town for the next sixty years.

The Methodist community of Haverhill was founded by Thomas Cole, a local preacher of Weston Colville. They first met in an old wooden bakehouse by the Plough inn in Withersfield Road.

Employment in the silk industry had reached a peak in the 1850s when about 2,000 silk throwster, dyers and weavers were employed locally around Sudbury, and up the Stour valley. However, a number of firms in the silk business would fail to survive in the decades following the Cobden Free Trade Treaty. The firms that survived this and later recessions in the silk industry did so by focussing on the quality end of the market and by specialising in a niche market. In the late 19th century a number of firms specialised in silk fabric for parasols and umbrellas.

The years between 1863 and 1866 became known as the time of Railway Mania, when many new lines were proposed and opened.

Within a couple of months Haverhill was also linked up to Sudbury. At the same time as the Sudbury link went in, the Sturmer Arches were completed to link the Colne Valley railway to the Great Eastern Line. The arches were originally called Junction Bridge, and in order to make the approach embankments large quantities of soil were dug out nearby, leaving the depression known as Junction Hole.

Vanners built a silk factory in Colne Valley Road in 1865, according to that firm. However, the Sudbury Museum Trust date this move to 1874. This factory in recent times became the Addis Brush factory. The silk was all produced on hand looms and silk looms needed very good lighting from large windows.

This was the year of the great new Education Act, when every authority had to ensure that school places were available to provide elementary education on a universal basis. It was also called the Forster Act. The passing of the Forster Act in 1870 brought about the establishment of Board Schools in places where there was a lack of existing provision. Board Schools qualified for government grants, and would lead to the decline of any locally established "ragged school". No action could be taken in Haverhill until a school board could be set up.

The Red Lion had been a public house since at least 1685 when property deeds referred to it as the White Lyon. Today it is the site of a jeweller's shop.

Daniel Gurteen applied to buy the property, and after being allowed only to rent it, it was eventually sold to him.

Vanners Silk manufacturers had originated in Spitalfields. According to the Sudbury Museum Trust, Vanners made a late move into Suffolk in the 1870s when they opened warehouses in Glemsford (1871) and Haverhill in 1874. Other silk firms had been active in Suffolk for over 50 years.

Steam power was successfully harnessed by Gurteens to drive sewing machines. This innovation led to the manufacture of textiles for clothing which would become the mainstay of Haverhill's prosperity into the second half of the 20th century.

A full time police force was to follow.

At this time the Haverhill brewery passed from the Boreham family to William Ward.

Gurteens had a factory outing to Alexandra Palace at the firm's expense.

Football was becoming an organised form of recreation for young men and the Haverhill Town Football Club was set up.

The Local Board started on the project of a system of sewage disposal.

The Haverhill Gas Company sold its gasworks to Haverhill Local Board later in 1884 for £2,000. It seems that Goddard kept his lease until 1886, or 1887, when the Board took over management of the Works.

Foundations of a building were found at the back of Weavers Row. This seems to be accepted as being the remains of the St Botolph's church, dating perhaps to a flint rebuilding of the 1100's. It was reportedly 100 feet long.

Gurteens started coconut fibre mat weaving on hand looms, as well as weaving cloth clippings into rugs.

Around the same time the Haverhill Rovers Football Club was established. It was the second club in Haverhill, and they started to outdo the Haverhill Town Club. By 1900 the two clubs had amalgamated.

The Old Independent Church received a new organ, presented by the Gurteen family in memory of old Daniel Gurteen who had died in 1884.

Haverhill in Massachusetts held a celebration to mark 250 years of settlement there. Haverhill, Suffolk was represented by the Chairman of the Local Board, who was a Gurteen.

In 1891 the Haverhill North railway station was given a footbridge over the railway line and steps built down to Wratting Road.

Crampton's Almanac for 1894, contrasted the condition of Haverhill in 1894, one of prosperity, with the poverty of the 1850's. It also praised the rural location, and the town's main employer. "The Haverhill people (are) enjoying the purity of the country air combined with all the advantages to be obtained by the inhabitants of a large town. That Haverhill combines these advantages is due to the Gurteens."

The Haverhill Waterworks was opened, with a pumping station in Camps Road.