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Toppesfield is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...
in the Braintree district of
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, England. The village is approximately north from the
county town of
Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of Lond ...
, and west from the village of
Great Yeldham
Great Yeldham is a village in north Essex, England, about from the Suffolk border. Great Yeldham is situated along the busy main A1017 road (formerly A604) between Braintree and Haverhill.
The village is where the infant River Colne is join ...
. The parish contains the hamlets of
Gainsford End and Grass Green.
History
The derivation of the name 'Toppesfield' is 'open land on the hill top', a possible agglomeration of the phrase 'Top of the Field'.
Geography
Toppesfield, from the
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...
border, is part of North Essex which has higher terrain than most of Essex. The village sits on a small and shallow hill, about 75 metres above sea level.
Community
Toppesfield is a rural community historically associated with
arable farming
Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...
. The village has approximately 300 inhabitants. The hamlet of
Gainsford End, of approximately fifty inhabitants, is about southwest from the village, and contains the listed
Gainsford End Mill.
Toppesfield's only