Places of note include the following: Gosfield does not appear to have enjoyed either a long or distinguished history.

These include a circular monument some 30 metres in diameter that may have been either a late Neolithic henge, or more likely, a Bronze Age round barrow.

The HER also indicates that early medieval (the period between the end of Roman rule and the Norman Conquest) metalwork has been discovered in the parish.

It suggests that Gosfield may have come into the possession of the De Vere family not long after the Norman Conquest.

The first Earl and his wife, Lucy, founded Hedingham Priory in the second half of the 12th century, and endowed it with a portion of their extensive holdings.

John Wentworth seems to have been the son of a Yorkshire family who took a prominent role in the staff of Cardinal Wolsey under Henry VIII.

He survived Wolsey's fall from grace and continued to hold office at Court into the reign of Elizabeth I. Wentworth might not, however, have built a completely new house.

By 1691 the Hall had come into the possession of Sir Thomas Millington, physician to the joint monarchs, William III and Mary II.

Buckingham had married Nugent's daughter, however, he preferred to make his ancestral seat, Stowe, his primary residence.

One effect of the Hall's fall from favour was that it briefly became the home of the exiled Louis XVIII of France in the years 1807 to 1809.

He was to spend the next 23 years in exile, during which time his brother was guillotined, and his nephew, who nominally became Louis XVII on his father's execution, died in prison.

However, the extravagance of his court and his intrigues aimed at restoring the French Monarchy made him a difficult guest.

In the late 18th century, George Courtauld set-up a water-powered silk mill at Pebmarsh, near Halstead.

When the business ran into difficulties in 1816 George passed the management of the firm to his eldest son, Samuel.

In the early years he frequently had to enter partnerships, often with his younger brothers, in order to raise finance.

One of the keys to this eventual success appears to have been the decision to diversify from the throwing of silk thread to the manufacture of crepe fabric.

Following her husband's death, on the rare occasions that she appeared in public, Queen Victoria was always seen wearing black crepe.

Courtauld also paid for the erection of the Reading and Coffee Rooms at the southern end of Park Cottages, and a new village school on the western side of the main road.

So on his death in 1881, he left the Hall and much of his fortune to an adopted daughter, Louisa Lowe (née Harris).

After the war, the Hall and its park have had a variety of uses, including a school, a golfing venue and an old people's home.

It seems likely that this prosperity was associated with it lying on a route between the wealthy textile-producing region in Suffolk and Norfolk and its main market in London.