Julie, Wayne and the glass boot

Continuing from Newmarket, Julie and Wayne made a stop at the charming village of Lavenham. During the Middle and Tudor Ages, Lavenham was one of the wealthiest towns in England, thanks to its flourishing wool industry. The townspeople built many grand, timber-framed houses and lived very luxuriously. So much so that when King Henry VII visited in 1487, he fined many families for flaunting their wealth too ostentatiously! 

Lavenham flourished but eventually, the wool industry began to decline due to a variety of factors, including cheaper fabrics and changing fashion trends. Due to the lack of necessary funds, the villagers were unable to rebuild their homes. Consequently and luckily for us, over 300 of these original timber-framed structures have remained untouched and are preserved and maintained in Lavenham. The result is that today, the town is best known for serving as a time capsule for well-preserved medieval architecture, particularly its colourful and crooked timber-framed houses. Notable buildings include the impressive wool church of St. Peter and St. Paul, built with wool money in the 1520s. It was meant to secure the donors a place in heaven in the afterlife. I hope for their sake they were successful because the church is very grand indeed and boasts the tallest church tower in England. The donors to the church probably felt they had a lot to make amends for all their accumulated wealth. The stunning Guildhall dominates the marketplace in town, and the rich terracotta-coloured Little Hall is a fantastic example of a medieval wool merchant's house. But that’s not why Julie and Wayne were there, they were on a mission to visit the Swan Inn. 

One of Lavenham's quaint timber-framed Tudor houses is home to the luxurious Swan Inn Hotel and Spa which houses The Airmen's bar and that was Julie and Wayne’s destination in Lavenham. This is a bar where British and American Air Force service men went to relax and meet up with friends for a drink during the Second World War.

"The writings on the walls are written by the officers on their return from their mission and they're drinking games which they played to relax after. They were only discovered in the last 20 years when they had to refurbish that wall.

The words on the wall are from American relatives that have visited the village of Lavenham where their relatives were based in World War 2 some saying if they survived the war and some giving the date when they passed."

Wayne Smith, August 2023

On rowdy evenings the Americans would compete with the British in a drinking game called the Boot Challenge. You probably guessed it, the challenge was to be the quickest to down three and a half pints of ale from a glass boot! I am not sure if this challenge is still on or if Julie and Wayne tried it. If they did, they'd have been very quiet about it! But they found the pub fascinating and very atmospheric, it offered a little trip sending them back to the 1940s which was brought very much to life by a riveting collection of service men’s signatures and mementoes which decorate the walls. Many of these signatures are the results of the Boot Challenge but it’s obvious that vast numbers of the pub’s patrons wanted to leave their mark on a memorable evening at the Swan. Overall a good trip down history lane, we’ll have to go back and see about that glass boot.

Lisa