This Town Of Crooked Houses Is A Curious And Fascinating Sight

Don’t you just hate it when architects and engineers mess up on keeping their designs perfectly straight and aligned? Well, this wool-trading community in Lavenham, Suffolk, England is a town-full of crooked and misaligned homes, and nobody’s blaming anybody for it.

The small town is filled with half-timbered, obviously crooked, and brightly painted houses looking as if they are leaning on each other. Locals believe it has a significant role in a nursery rhyme.

It was believed to be the origins of a popular nursery rhyme.

There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little-crooked house.

Lavenham is a small medieval town rich in culture and history.

It was founded through prosperous wool trade and was famous for high-quality wool like the blue broadcloth.

At one point during the 15th century, Lavenham was considered to be one of the richest among the British Isles.

The town was able to contribute more taxes than the larger towns of Lincoln and York.

The town’s prosperity was marked by the construction of the wool church of St. Paul and St. Peter on the hilltop.

With the town’s prosperity came the rapid increase of house constructions in the community.

As the houses were hastily built with green timber, the wood eventually dried up.

This caused the timbers to warp, ultimately bending the homes in unexpected angles.

As time passed by, the dried wood started to twist, and the end result is almost an entire town with crooked houses.

The town also eventually went down economically as the wool trade collapsed and most of the families and residents lost their wealth.

Although it’s a bit of a sad history, the town is still a fascinating sight for the visiting tourist.