Great Canfield

Great Canfield civil parish contains Grade listed buildings and historic landscapes, and records dating back to the Domesday Book of 1086. One entry found in the Domesday Book describes Great Canfield as having a "Value to the Lord in 1066 [of] £6"^[2] and agricultural resources from years 1066 to 1086: "Meadow 51 acres. Woodland 160 pigs. 1 mill."^[2]

Great Canfield is one of 104 parishes within the scope of The Hundred Parishes Society, which covers "450 square miles of northwest Essex, northeast Hertfordshire and southern Cambridgeshire".^[3] The society aims to raise awareness of the area's character and history and conserve and protect its historic buildings, natural landscape and culture. St Mary's Church at Great Canfield is of particular interest; the church is typically Norman and thought to have been constructed between 1100-1150. It is described as being "in the shadow of an old Motte and Bailey and it was perhaps built on the site of an earlier church". The church contains a 13th–century painting of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus. St Mary's is part of a six-church Group ministry in west Essex – the other churches are St Mary the Virgin in Aythorpe Roding, St Andrews's in Halstead, St Mary the Virgin in High Easter, All Saints in High Roding, and the Church of St Margaret of St Antioch in Margaret Roding.^[4] The group shares a part-time priest who conducts services in each of the member churches.

At the centre of Great Canfield village, 125 yards (114 m) south-east from the church, are the earthwork remains of Great Canfield Castle. The 280 feet (85 m) diameter and 48 feet (15 m) high remains are of a motte and bailey castle. The remains are set within a wooded area bounded south-east to north-east by a bend of the River Roding, a feed from which was used to supply water to the castle moat. Great Canfield Castle is documented from 1154 to 1216, and is associated with the de Vere Earls of Oxford.^[5] Satellite photographs also reveal the outline of a windmill which was destroyed around 1900.

Isaac Lodge, recipient of the Victoria Cross for action during the Second Boer War, was born in the village.

Recorded from past census statistics; the population of Great Canfield has seen only one major decline in population, from its peak population of 511 in 1831, to 271 by 1901.^[6] Census data shows that a decline in population was consecutive with every recorded census between 1841 and 1901. An increase in population within Great Canfield after the census of 1841 was not recorded until 1911; the population rose from 271 recorded in 1901, to 305 by 1911- an increase of 34.^[6] Since the 1921 Census Great Canfield has seen regular increases in population, the greatest between the years 1921-1931 where there was an increase of 86, from 254 to 340. Since then the increases have been moderate.^{[further explanation needed]}

Since 1801, housing levels have changed in line with changing population. During the 1800s, however, this was not the case. Between the years 1831-1881, Great Canfield recorded an increase in the total number of houses from 93 to 104;^[7] the population rate during this time decreased. In the 1900s, the number of houses in Great Canfield increased: between 1921-1961, there was an increase in houses from 75 to 123 with consistent increases being reported at every census.^[7] The 2001 and 2011 censuses show an increase in the total number of houses within Great Canfield- the 2001 Census registered a total of 133 houses,^[8] and the 2011 Census, 156.^[9] This may be due to the pressure of increasing urban development within Great Canfield, however, such development remains widely rejected within the Great Canfield community. A scheme of 31 July 2014 proposed major residential development within Great Canfield with the building of a further 211 homes on the land west of Canfield Road.^[10] The proposal was refused on the 5 November 2014 by Uttlesford District Council.