Fyfield is named after five hides ( a measure of land for one household) and for many years was the home of the famous horse trainer Toby Balding and his Grand National Winners, Highland Wedding and Little Polvier the winner in 1989, The local pub has been named Highland Wedding in honour of the horse. So it is not unusual to come across a string of race horses being exercised in the area.

The church of St Nicholas

Lying off of the village street is the church of St Nicholas which dates back to the 13th century and Fyfield's past can be found in records housed at the Bodelian Library in Oxford among the diaries of Henry White who was rector here. His brother was the famous naturalist Gilbert White and was rector here from 1762 to 1788. Both he and Elizabeth Cooper his wife who came from Oxford lived and farmed here. Keeping a school for the sons of the local gentry known as the Fyfield Academy for Young Gentlemen. One hundred pounds a year for each student  was charged and they and to supply their own horses and furniture!

White came into possession of the Grange in 1774 and he added a new wing and a large kitchen and music-room, plus bedrooms to house his ten children and various retainers. It was on 12th February 1771 that Gilbert White wrote ''My musical friend [ie his brother] at whose house I am now visiting has tried all the owls that are in his near neighbourhood with a pitch-pipe set at concert-pitch and finds that they all hoot in B flat.'

Nowadays both the Rectory and the Grange are private houses and the manor a horse racing establishment that has had two Grand National Winners, Highland Wedding in 1969 and Little Polvier in 1989.

Now a listed building, the village school,  was built by a 'philanthropic lady of the village' in 1790 for the local children. And when it was sold during the 1969s the money raised was used to send boys and girls on holidays and also to purchase tools for their apprenticeships..