Top Things to Do in Uttlesford, England

Audley End House and Gardens is the best place in England to discover how a great house worked in the past. You can explore the great hall, state rooms and intimate private apartments, all decorated with fine furniture and works of art. In the 1830s nursery, kids will love trying on costumes and playing with replica toys. Upstairs in the Coal Gallery, see how servants kept the house stocked with coal and hot water. The Service Wing offers a unique insight into life ‘below stairs’ during the 1880s. The domain of Mrs Avis Crocombe, Victorian cook (and 21st-century YouTube star!), the wing is packed with Victorian fittings and animated with lifelike sights and sounds. Don’t miss the resident horses in their grand stables. The grounds at Audley End were designed by Capability Brown, so there's acres of beautiful, award winning parkland to explore too.

Walden Castle at Saffron Walden in Essex is a ruined twelfth-century Norman castle keep, one of the largest Norman shell keeps in Essex, built sometime between 1125 and 1143 by Geoffrey de Mandeville, one of the most powerful Anglo-Norman barons of the reign of King Stephen. The castle keep survives as a substantial ruin in the attractive market town of Saffron Walden, managed by Uttlesford District Council and freely accessible to visitors. The town of Saffron Walden is one of the finest historic market towns in Essex, with a beautiful medieval church, remarkable topiary maze on the common, and well-preserved Tudor and Georgian architecture making it one of the most rewarding small towns in East Anglia. The castle ruin provides a medieval foundation for a town whose heritage spans the Norman period to the present.