Care home in Haverhill recalls town's links with Anna of Cleves

On Monday I went to Haverhill to take part in the official start of construction of Cleves Place, the seventh of ten new care homes that are to be built by Care UK on behalf of Suffolk County Council.

Cleves Place will be built on the site of a former Middle School. It is a perfect spot, just minutes from the town centre, in a quiet elevated position with good views.  In addition to 60 beds, the Home will have a centre for day residents, a hairdressers and other innovative facilities.

The name was chosen from a number of suggestions submitted by residents of other homes.  It recalls Haverhill’s connections with Anna of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry Vlll.  Their marriage did not last much beyond their first meeting, at which, disappointed in her looks, the King turned to Cromwell and said ‘I like her not’.

Divorce followed shortly, and, probably as part of the settlement, Anna received the parsonage in Haverhill, accompanying lands and right to appoint clergy in January 1541.  History does not relate if she actually ever visited the town, but she did live on in England in conditions of considerable comfort, long after Henry’s death in 1547.   In fact she was the last survivor of all Henry’s wives, Catherine Parr, the sixth wife, only outliving him by a year or so.  Anna attended the coronation of Mary l in a carriage with the future Elizabeth l and she died at Chelsea in 1557, a little over a year before Elizabeth's accession to the throne. She is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Reputedly a somewhat flattering painting of Anna of Cleves by Holbein.