The Rector of Fyfield for almost the whole of the second half of the 17th Century was the remarkable Dr Anthony Walker. Born around 1622, he attended St John’s College, Cambridge, from the age of 16, gaining a BA in 1640 and an MA in 1645. He married Elizabeth Sadler in 1650 and in 1687 Dr. Anthony Walker supported a free school for the poor children of the parish, (whatever their denomination) using rents from property and half an acre of land he owned in Fyfield, as well as 56 acres of farmland in High Ongar. His wife used to buy primers, psalters, Testaments and Bibles to give away to poor children and families and paid for the schooling of some of these children, most of whom were farm labourers’ children.

When Dr Walker died, he left several settlements to the parish of Fyfield which are detailed on what must be one of the most memorable of Essex’s charity boards on display in St Nicholas’ Church. He asked that the rents from the land might be used for a number of bequests for education including; £8 per annum and a house in Queen Street for a Schoolmaster to teach the poor children of the parish to read, write, cast accompts (arithmetic) and to say their catechism and to supervise them in prayer; £1 to buy books, paper etc and £1 for the purchase of good English Bibles or other good books for the use of the poor of this parish. The Dr Walker School Foundation (an independent charitable organisation which manages Dr Walker’s Trust) continues to provide Bibles to Year 6 pupils when they leave Dr Walker’s School.