Halstead is a traditional well kept market town with a wealth of individual shops, restaurants and interesting walks. The unusually steep High Street hosts a market on Fridays and Saturdays, there is a popular local theatre with live shows and plenty of leisure opportunities in the town. Wool and weaving have provided the mainstay of business over the centuries, and the surviving Townsford Mill (built in 1788) straddling the River Colne now holds one of the largest Antiques Centres on the Essex/Suffolk border.