into Thomas Gainsborough School. Demography Historical population Notable residents Richard of Lavenham (fl. 1380), an English Carmelite, known as a scholastic philosopher Thomas Cooke (unknown, but in Lavenham – 1478), an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London Thomas Spring of Lavenham (ca.1474 – 1523), an English cloth merchant, buried in Lavenham John Spring of Lavenham (unknown – 1547), an English merchant and politician Thomas Spring of Castlemaine (unknown, but in Lavenham – 1597), an English Protestant soldier and landowner William Spring of Lavenham (unknown – 1599), an English politician and landowner. George Ruggle (1575–1622), author of Ignoramus, a college farce; brought up in Lavenham William Gurnall (1616–1679), puritan rector of Lavenham church (1644–1679), author of The Christian in Complete Armour Peregrine Branwhite (1745 in Lavenham – ca.1795), an English poet Isaac Taylor (1759–1829), an English engraver and writer of books for the young, lived in Lavenham William Blair (1766 in Lavenham – 1822), an English surgeon, interested in ciphers and stenography Jane Taylor (1783–1824), an English poet and novelist, wrote the words to the song Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, lived in Lavenham Sir William Shelford KCMG (1834 in Lavenham – 1905), an English civil engineer Robert Langton Douglas (1864 in Lavenham – 1951), a British art critic, lecturer and author Sir Francis Meynell (1891–1975), a British poet and printer at The Nonesuch Press, lived in Lavenham. Dame Alix Kilroy (1903–1999), civil and public servant, lived in Lavenham. John Millar Watt (1895–1975), artist, illustrator and comics artist: creator of 'Pop' cartoon (1921–1949), lived in Lavenham. Sir Stephen Spender CBE (1909–1995), an English poet, novelist and essayist Sir Clive Rose GCMG (1921–2019), a British diplomat, retired to Lavenham Roy Turner Durrant (1925 in Lavenham – 1998), an English abstract artist Eamon Boland (born 1947), an English actor Lavenham in popular culture Parts of Market Square were included in the 1968 Vincent Price film Witchfinder General. The witch burning scenes were staged in front of the Guildhall. In 1969 some filming was done in Lavenham for The Thirteen Chairs, also known as Twelve Plus One. This was actress Sharon Tate's last movie before her murder. In 1971, part of The Canterbury Tales were recorded here, with the village representing medieval London. The 1975 Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon included the Guildhall. In 1980, some sequences in the TV advertisement for the launch of the new Austin Metro were filmed in the village,