The Icknield Way Path passes through the village on its 110 miles (180 km) route between Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire and Knettishall Heath in Suffolk.

[citation needed] Great Chesterford is an ancient village with many listed buildings situated on the banks of the River Cam, or Granta, on the boundary of Essex and Cambridgeshire.

Bronze Age beakers, Belgic pottery and jewellery, and many Roman artefacts which can be found in both Saffron Walden and Cambridge museums.

In the 1st century AD, a Romano-British civil settlement was established near the river, occupying an important site en route between London, Cambridge and Newmarket.

They erected many buildings, including a tax office, and a temple which was excavated to the east of the town near the Belgic cemetery.

By medieval times Great Chesterford was a town of some importance with a weekly market (confirmed later by a charter from Charles I in 1634), and a fair held on St John the Baptist’s Day.