Dedham has a central nuclear settlement around the Church and the junction of Mill Lane and the High Street (part of the B1029).

In 1582–1587, a schismatic Presbyterian Christian group called the Dedham Classis, which included dozens of members opposed to the established church, was active in north-east Essex.

[4] This group held clandestine meetings and prayer groups in and around Colchester and surrounding villages like Dedham, publishing and distributing versions of Wycliffe's Bible and various other Calvinist texts obtained from London; the Dedham Classis is the best recorded of those active in the sixteenth century.

In 1937, Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Dedham.

Of longer influence in Dedham was the horse painter Sir Alfred Munnings, who became President of the Royal Academy.

[6] Keating's best known painting, a Constable pastiche called The Haywain in Reverse, is reportedly on display in the Granary Barn and Museum in Flatford.

[11] Agriculture is also important with mainly arable land (sugar beet and wheat) but also cattle grazing on the water meadows and some sheep on Grove Hill.