IN this week’s Down Memory Lane we look at Horndon-on-the-hill.

Horndon is thought to be the location of an eleventh-century Saxon mint, one of only three in Essex. At that time it was policy to disperse coin manufacture, to ensure minimum disruption. However like other dispersed Saxon mints, it appears to have been short lived.

Horndon was important in the medieval period as a collection point for wool which at the time of the Doomsday survey was the principal product of the Essex coastal and riverine marshlands. It may have retained a market from the Saxon period; one was certainly held by 1281. Cloth manufacturing is known to have started in the late 15th century

The 16th century Market Hall was built for the wool trade.