Toppesfield

Toppesfield is a village and civil parish in the Braintree district of Essex, England. The village is approximately 19 miles (31 km) north from the county town of Chelmsford, and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west from the village of Great Yeldham. The parish contains the hamlets of Gainsford End and Grass Green.

Toppesfield

Toppesfield from Stambourne Road
Toppesfield
Location within Essex
Population507 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceTL739372
District
  • Braintree
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townHalstead
Postcode districtCO9
Dialling code01787
PoliceEssex
FireEssex
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament

History

The derivation of the name 'Toppesfield' is 'open land on the hill top',[2] a possible agglomeration of the phrase 'Top of the Field'.

Geography

Toppesfield, 8 miles (13 km) from the Suffolk border, is part of North Essex which has higher terrain than most of Essex. The village sits on a small and shallow hill, its roads running downhill from the centre. Toppesfield church tower is visible from villages more than 10 miles away.

Community

Toppesfield is a rural community historically associated with arable farming. The village has approximately three-hundred inhabitants. The hamlet of Gainsford End, of approximately fifty inhabitants, is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest from the village, and contains the listed Gainsford End Mill.

Toppesfield's only public house is the Green Man. The pub is owned by Toppesfield Community Pub Limited (TCP), an Industrial & Provident Society which was established in 2012. TCP gained control of the Green Man in December 2012 from Admiral Taverns, a national pub chain which had financial problems. TCP is owned by more than 150 shareholders who raised share capital exceeding £150,000 to help finance the purchase.[3]

St Margaret’s Church, Topplesfield, a Church of England parish church, is part of the Upper Colne Valley Parishes joint benefice.[4] Affiliated to the church is St Margaret's Church of England primary school.

Toppesfield village hall is attached to a shop and post office. The hall holds a yearly flower show, and in 1999-2000 held a Millennium party.

At the centre of the village is a village pump around which local events have been held, including a June 2002 Golden Jubilee celebration.

gollark: DOWN WITH LINKED LISTS except in FP.
gollark: When would you do a circular linked list?
gollark: I mean, it does cause... problems... if you do, but it's possible.
gollark: You can use `Rc`, it's not like Rust bans them.
gollark: Also, hold mutable references to, say, different elements of a vector.

References
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  2. The Cambridge dictionary of English place-names : based on the collections of the English Place-Name Society. Watts, V. E. (Victor Ernest), Insley, John., Gelling, Margaret. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2004. ISBN 0521362091. OCLC 48265598.CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. The Green Man pub bought by Toppesfield villagers, BBC, retrieved 14 December 2012
  4. St Margaret’s Church, Topplesfield, Upper Colne Valley Parishes
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