Finchingfield

There has been a settlement in Finchingfield since historical records of the area began. Archaeological evidence suggests a Roman villa once stood 400 metres south-southwest of today's village church. The place-name 'Finchingfield ' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Fincingefelda, meaning 'the field of Finc or his people'.Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.179

The village was an official stop for horse-drawn coaches travelling from London to Norwich.

Spains Hall, the nearby Elizabethan country house, was built in the early fifteenth century. The hall is named after Hervey de Ispania, who held the manor at the time of the 1086 Domesday Book. Since then, the land has been owned by four families: the de Ispania family, the Kempe family, who acquired it when Margery de Ispania married Nicholas Kempe in the early fifteenth century, the Ruggles family (later the Ruggles-Brise family), and currently celebrity chef Jamie Oliver with wife Jools and their 5 children.{{Cite web|title=Spains Hall: Jamie and Jools Oliver splash out £6m on Tudor mansion in Finchingfield, Essex|url=https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/tv-chef-jamie-oliver-buys-a-new-house-in-finchingfield-1-5847116|last=Smith-Jarvis|first=Charlotte|date=10 January 2019|website=East Anglian Daily Times|language=en|access-date=2020-05-18}} The hall was the hub of the community, those families owning much of the village, and employing most of the villagers.{{cite news|title=Finchingfield's friendly faces |last=Jarvis |first=Joanne |date=November 2008 |work=Essex Life |url=http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=Qs3051eD1rF8&EID=e2b10cf0-fd31-44b7-837b-a7ba94501771&skip=true |publisher=Archant |pages=78–79 |access-date=24 January 2009}} (Registration required)

Finchingfield and Cornish Hall End combined had a population of 1,471 at the United Kingdom Census 2011.[http://www.braintree.gov.uk/housingstatnav/info/4/parishes/4/finchingfield_and_cornish_hall_end "Finchingfield & Cornish Hall End"], Braintree District Council. Retrieved 4 January 2015

The ecclesiastical parish covering Finchingfield includes Cornish Hall End, Shalford, and Wethersfield.

Societies and clubs founded in Finchingfield, include The Finchingfield Society, the Horticultural Society, the Royal British Legion, and Finchingfield Cricket Club.

It often is called the most beautiful village in England, a "picture-postcard" village and one of the most photographed, with a duck pond and village green surrounded by Georgian and medieval cottages; St John the Baptist Church on the hill; an eighteenth-century windmill; three public houses; Post Office; tea rooms; a hall; a primary school; and a doctor's surgery.

It often has appeared in television programmes, films, and commercials, as well as on chocolate boxes, biscuit tins, and other products.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

Finchingfield was the home and is the burial place of Dodie Smith, whose books include The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956). She lived in The Barretts at Howe Street, a hamlet in the parish about {{convert|1.5|mi|km|1}} from the village.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2281001.stm|title=Cruella's 'home' up for sale|date=25 September 2002|work=BBC News|publisher=BBC|access-date=24 January 2009}}

The 2013 Sky series Chickens was filmed in the village. The series concerns three young men who avoided going to fight during the First World War, written by and starring Simon Bird and Joe Thomas.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

The village is on the route of the Dunwich Dynamo annual cycle ride.

• Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}
• Norman Lewis, travel writer, novelist, founder of Survival International{{Cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-92251 |title=Lewis, (John Frederick) Norman (1908–2003) |last=Tomes |first=Jason |date=8 January 2009 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/92251}}
• Dodie Smith, author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians
• A J A Symons, author of The Quest For Corvo, an acclaimed biography of the author Frederick Rolfe.{{Cite web|url=https://www.iwfs.org/americas/a.j.a.-symons|title=The International Wine & Food Society (IW&FS)|first=CAMALEO web|last=intelligence (camaleo.com)|website=www.iwfs.org}}
• Janie Terrero (1858 – 1944), militant suffragette born here.{{Cite web|url=https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/database/2546/mrs-janie-terrero|title=Mrs Janie Terrero / Database - Women's Suffrage Resources|website=www.suffrageresources.org.uk}}
• Jamie Oliver, chef, TV personality and author

File:Finchingfield, Essex.jpg|A quintessential English village.

File:Finchingfield(ChristineMatthews)Jun2005.jpg|Finchingfield, June 2005

File:Finchingfield post Windmill.jpg|Finchingfield post mill

File:Finchingfield Guildhall.jpg|Finchingfield Guildhall (before 2011-2013 restoration)[http://www.finchingfieldguildhall.org.uk/the-story-so-far/ "Guildhall Finchingfield Essex"], Retrieved 4 January 2015

File:Finchingfield church of St John the Baptist 2.jpg|The church of St. John the Baptist

File:02 THE FOX INN, FINCHINGFIELD.jpg|The Fox Inn, Finchingfield

• The Hundred Parishes

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{{Commons category|Finchingfield}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070621175054/http://www.btinternet.com/~roger.beckwith/Finchingfield/index.htm Images of Finchingfield]
• [http://www.our-cottage.co.uk/html/finch.htm Cliff Lawson's tribute to Finchingfield]

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Category:Villages in Essex

Category:Civil parishes in Essex

Category:Braintree District