The Church of St. John the Baptist
FINCHINGFIELD
THE famous view of Finchingfield—and it is unquestionably
the most "picturesque" village in Essex—owes its
essential charm to the fact that the church lies on top of a
steep hill and dominates the village which runs down to the
little stream, which eventually joins the Pant. That the stream
broadens out to a pond surrounded by the village green adds
greatly to the picture. But essentially, in how miniature, how
quiet and how English a way it echoes that most romantic
conception of landscape: a tower overlooking a river.
Obviously what is now Church Hill must have, from the
earliest times, been a strong point. Some remains, probably
Roman, have recently been found, and other Roman remains,
excavated at Great Biggins (less than 1/4 mile away) are to
be seen in the Guildhall. In Saxon times, too, it must have
retained its importance since its name tells us that it was
land cleared of forest that belonged to the Phinces (its old
spelling was Phincingfield) and at the time of the Conquest
was held by Algar, Earl of Mercia.
William the Conqueror divided up the land and gave the
chief portions to the Earl of Bretagne and Richard Fitz-
gilbert, ancestors of the Earls of Clare. But a large "lordship",
which must have included the Church Hill, was given to
Roger Bigod, who was to found one of the most powerful
families in England. We read of him in 1103 bestowing on
the Cluniac Priory of Thetford "two-thirds of the tithes from
his desmesne in Finchingfield and all the rights he had in
the church of that town". This must refer to a Saxon chapel,
of which no trace remains, for the earliest work surviving
in the present building, the two lower storeys of the massive
Western tower, are generally dated 1170 and must have been
built by a descendant, when the Bigods had already become
Earls of Norfolk.
The connection with Thetford Priory is interesting in the
ecclesiastical history of the parish, for the Prior of Thetford