A gram Saffron is being grow

than 4,000 years and was revered by leaders in the distant past.

Ancient Greek conqueror Alexander the Great flavoured his food and drink with the spice, and used it to bathe his wounds.

While Egyptian pharaoh Cleopatra added saffron to her bath, believing it would enhance her love-making.

The fabulous flower, thought to cure the Black Death, was said to have been smuggled into Englandg in the 14th century. A pilgrim m from the Holy Lands is believedved to have stolen a single bulb b and hidden it in his clothes.

During the 16th centuryntury England became the world’s biggest saffron producer..

Chipping Walden in Essexsex had become a commercial l centre for the spice.

It changed its name to Saffron Walden and later adding a coat of arms with, at its centre, three crocus sativus ( saffron crocus). Here the streets were said to be carpeted with the purple petals during harvests, while the town got richer.

Its legacy is reflected in t he wealth of timber-framed buildings of that time and the largest parish church in Essex, completed in 1525.

Saffron was largely used as a dye for the wool trade in Suffolk.

Malcolm White, Saffron Walden town clerk from 1976 to 2010, said: “There can be no question the wealth of the town was directly attributable to that crop and is perhaps most beautifully witnessed in our magnificent parish church of St Mary’s.”

Yet even at times of plenty saffron’s price could be unpredictable. Malcolm said: “Its value fluctuated from as little as 12 shillings for a pound in 1548, to over £4 in 1665, with wild variations in between. “In its heyday the town’s pride in its crop and significance to the economy is reflected in the gifts Saffron made to Elizabeth I, James I, Charles II, William III and Charles III.” Saffron also extended beyond Essex. The name Croydon is derived from the Anglo-g Saxon croeas deanas, mean meaning “the valley of the crocuses”, which suggests the South Londo London borough also produced it o once. And lege legend has it that in Cornw Cornwall traders exchanged tin for the spice carried by Me Mediterrranean sailors ors. But by the 1880s th the complex skills H n needed to grow the Eng s spice died out when too cheaper imports D from Spain, Iran and and Kas Kashmir arrived. Wh David David, 52, fascinated by as the plan plant, started planted Ma saffG crocus b bulbs in his garden in the late 90s and then expan expanded to plantations floo near Saffron Walden like andd the Devon village and of Exton. David, who runs English P Saffron with sister Penny, said: “I’ve Lei always wanted to grow something and the one day I had a mad idea that I would a fa grow saffron. saff “I looked into who was growing it the and to my surprise I found there was fron nobody doing it in England. ““The first year I grew the crocuses and in my back garden and just built my pla stock up from there. For the first few years I had some successes and some disasters but there was nobody to turn to we on tha

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