This book is a selection of images of Thaxted in Essex. The history of a town such as Thaxted has been described as the history of England in miniature, and Sir John Betjeman remarked “There is no town in north Essex – and very few in England – to equal in beauty, compactness and juxtaposition of medieval and Georgian architecture, the town of Thaxted”.
Delightful buildings in the town include the Church of St John the Baptist, the Guildhall, Dick Turpin’s Cottage, and John Webb’s Windmill.
Gustav Holst lived in Town Street. While at Thaxted he wrote ‘Jupiter’, a part of his ‘Planets Suite’. His tune ‘Thaxted’ was based on ‘Jupiter’ and he adapted it for the hymn ‘I vow to thee my country’. He lived here until 1925. A blue plaque is on the front wall of what was his music room.