CANFIELD (Great), a parish in Dunmow district, Essex; on the river Roding, 2 miles S of the Bishop-Stortford, Dunmow, and Braintree railway, and 3½ SW of Dunmow. It has a post office under Chelmsford. Acres, 2,472. Real property, £3,575. Pop., 468. Houses, 115. The property is subdivided. Canfield House is the seat of the Barnards. There are remains of a moated castle, built by the De Veres. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £140.* Patron, J. M. Wilson, Esq. The church is tolerable; and has two brasses of the 16th century.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))