Finchingfield & Cornish Hall End

Finchingfield is on the B1052 Braintree to Saffron Walden road, fifty-four miles from London and close to Constable Country. In the time of William the Conqueror it was called Phincingfelda. The arrangement of houses around a central green produces a harmonious effect. There may be villages with smarter greens, more stylish buildings, or prettier ponds but they rarely combine in quite such a natural, apparently unplanned way.

The most distinguished house in the area is Spains Hall, named after a Norman family called Hispani who owned a property here in the 11th century. The present building is Elizabethan. From the 14th to the early 18th century the property was owned by the Kempes, it then passed to the Ruggles family.