Townapedia
Great Bardfield High Street
Great Bardfield High Street · Oxyman, CC BY 2.5
Finchingfield church of St John the Baptist
Finchingfield church of St John the Baptist · Oxyman, CC BY 2.5
Finchingfield Guildhall
Finchingfield Guildhall · Oxyman, CC BY 2.5

Great Bardfield, United Kingdom

Great Bardfield is a town of 1,227 people in England, United Kingdom.

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Population1,227 GeoNames
RegionEngland
Elevation240 ft 73 m
Time zoneEurope/London
Nearest airportLondon Stansted Airport (STN) 9 mi
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Why visit Great Bardfield

Townapedia lists 2 museums and landmarks and 7 places to eat in and around town.

Highlights include Finchingfield Guildhall and Great Bardfield Cottage Museum.

About Great Bardfield

Great Bardfield is a village and civil parish in the Braintree district of Essex, England. It is approximately 9 mi (14 km) northwest of the town of Braintree, and approximately 12 mi (19 km) southeast of Saffron Walden. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 1,374.

From the Wikipedia article Great Bardfield (this version), under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Museums and landmarks2

Restaurants and cafes7

The Vine

Bar and pub · Burger

Vine Street

Tu-Sa 12:00-23:00; Su 12:00-19:00; Mo 15:00-23:00

Open in Google Maps · +44 1371 811717

The Bell

Bar and pub

Dunmow Road

Mo-We 18:00-23:00; Th-Fr 17:00-23:00; Sa 15:00-23:00; Su 12:00-21:00

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The Blue Egg

Cafe · 0.8 mi

Braintree Road, Braintree

Mo-Sa 09:00-17:00

Open in Google Maps · +44 1371 811801

The Fox Inn

Bar and pub · 1.5 mi

The Green

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The Red Lion

Bar and pub · 1.6 mi

6 Church Hill

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Bosworth's Tea Rooms

Cafe · 1.5 mi

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The Picture Pot

Cafe · 1.5 mi

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Churches and places of worship5

Parish Church of St John the Baptist

Church · 1.6 mi

Grade I listed church in Finchingfield, Essex, England, UK

Open in Google Maps · Wikipedia

St Katherine, Little Bardfield

Church · Anglican · 1.2 mi

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St Mary the Virgin, Great Bardfield

Church · Anglican

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The Holy Spirit

Church · Catholic

Braintree Road, Braintree

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United Reform Church

Church · United Reformed · 1.5 mi

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Shopping2

The Co-operative Food

Grocery

Brook Street

Mo-Sa 06:00-21:00; Su 07:00-21:00

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Between The Lines

Shop

High Street, Great Bardfield

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History

Henry VIII is said to have given Bardfield to Anne of Cleves as part of his divorce settlement and a number of buildings in the village are associated with Anne of Cleves, including the Grade II-listed Great Lodge and its associated Grade I-listed barn, now named after her. The 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) grounds include a Grade I-listed barn and a vineyard. Great Bardfield is home to the Bardfield Cage, a 19th-century village lock-up, and the Gibraltar Mill, a windmill which has been converted to a house.

Great Bardfield played an important role in the history of the oxlip (Primula elatior) which, in the UK, is a rare plant only found where Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire meet. Originally it was thought that oxlips were cowslip-primrose hybrids but in 1842 Henry Doubleday and Charles Darwin conducted tests on plants collected from Great Bardfield and concluded that this was not so. For a while the plant was known as the Bardfield Oxlip. The common cowslip-primrose hybrid is known as the false oxlip (Primula × polyantha).

From the History section of Great Bardfield on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Gas and EV charging1

Schools, colleges and libraries2

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Map of Great Bardfield

19 places. The map loads OpenStreetMap tiles when you open it.

Getting there and nearby towns

London Stansted Airport (STN) is the nearest airport with scheduled flights listed in OpenStreetMap, 9 miles away.

Drive times are estimates from straight-line distance, not routes.

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Page built November 10, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us or suggest a place.