Thaxted is a village in North Essex south of Saffron Walden.  It has a number of attractive buildings including a guildhall and, a very large church which was briefly considered as a candidate for the Anglican Cathedral of Essex. For a time the composer Gustav Holst lived in Thaxted.  A friend of his was the vicar Conrad Noel who was a rather radical man and was known as the Red Vicar of Thaxted.  Another former resident was the highwayman Dick Turpin.   Thaxted was the terminus of the last railway to be built  in Essex prior to the First World War when the Thaxted and Elsenham Light Railway opened in 1913.  The line closed to passengers in 1952 and to goods in 1953.