Fairfield developed as a "street" village along the main highway from Bromsgrove to Stourbridge. Originally called "FORFELD", it was referred to in a Saxon Charter of 817 AD by Coenwulf, King of Mercia, "exempting Bishop Deneberht of Worcester's estates (including Forfeld) from all secular services except military services and the maintenance of bridges and strongholds". This probably meant the existence of an early settlement. In the late Saxon times Earl Leofwin of Mercia held the Worcester monastery's estates. His son, Earl Leofric, promised to restore the lands to the monks on his death but his widow, Godiva, arranged to hold them during her lifetime.

After the Norman Conquest, Forfeld was given to Urse D'Abitot and then descended through marriages from the Beechams, Sudeleys and other interrelated families to the Earls of Dudley in the 1700's. From the mid-nineteenth century, land and properties in Fairfield were sold and occupied by tenants and sub-tenants and they are now mostly in private ownership.

Fairfield Court, where courts were held to uphold the strict forest laws throughout medieval times was rebuilt in the sixteenth century and has now seventeenth to twentieth century additions and is still moated on three sides.

Timber framed Fairfield House Farm has been divided into private homes. Other old farms were High House; Malt House, Wood Lane, Fir Tree and Yew Tree Farm. Orchard Farm and Glovers Meadow Farm are more modern and together with Fairfield Court and Yew Tree Farm are the only working farms at present.

The Swan Inn is an old hostelry, at least 280 years old, where Fairfield Villa football team originally met in the early twentieth century. A row of three terraced cottages stands on the site of the Waggon and Horses, which had traded for over 300 years before being burned down in 1897.

Fairfield glass was well known for many years in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Thomas Evans had his glassworks in Brook Road and George Fox's glassworks was in Parish Hill, Bournheath. Some very fine glass was produced with many fancy coloured pieces as well as practical items. World War I took young glassworkers to fight and some, sadly, were killed and injured. This, together with cheap imported glass from Eastern Europe, led to the decline of Fairfield's glass industry, which ended in 1925. Some pieces of Fairfield glass are displayed in the Bromsgrove museum.

Nail making was a cottage industry throughout the nineteenth century in which many of the village families were occupied. All family members worked long arduous days with little reward. Market gardening became widespread, but this, like farming, went into a decline from the middle of the twentieth century.

Fairfield always had a variety of shops, but now has only one general store/post office. The village smithy and garage are long gone.

St. Mark's church was built in local sandstone as a Chapel of Ease in 1857 on land bequeathed for the purpose by the Earl of Dudley. The churchyard is now full and only the committal of ashes is permitted.

Fairfield First School was built in 1875 as a Church of England School on land given by Reverend H. A. Woodgate, Rector of Belbroughton. The Village Hall was rebuilt in brick in 1979 to replace the wooden building of 1926. The parsonage is now a private home and an old Toll House stands by the old road at the north end of the village.

The ancient woodland of Pepper Wood is just west of the village and is managed by the Woodland Trust.

A fuller account of Fairfield's Heritage is available in "The Story of Fairfield Past" by Margaret Must. Copies can be obtained by ringing 01527 874783