Foxearth

Foxearth is an ancient settlement in north Essex. The parish is about 7 mi in circumference; 3 mi from Sudbury seven from Halstead, and 56 mi from London. The lands are very good loamy clay soil. Foxearth has always been predominantly agricultural, and had its own watermill that originally fell within a separate parish, Weston, until the year 1286, when the two manors became united. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, the parish was in the possession of nineteen sochmen and four freemen; The Domesday survey shows that the small manor of Foxearth Hall, had become the property of Richard Fitz-Gilbert, ancestor of the lords of Clare. Literally "fox’s den", the village is recorded as…