Firefighters were called to the scene of a large blaze in a field near Sudbury yesterday afternoon.

Essex County Fire & Rescue Service was called out to a fire in Graves Hall Road, Sible Hedingham, at 5.14pm on Sunday.

Crews from Braintree, Halstead, Maldon and Saffron Walden fire stations were called to the scene.

Due to the large plumes of smoke billowing from the fire, control teams received several emergency calls to the incident from people who could see the incident from some distance away.

East Anglian Daily Times: Sible Hedingham, in Essex, is near Sudbury in SuffolkSible Hedingham, in Essex, is near Sudbury in Suffolk (Image: Essex County Fire & Rescue Service)

The blaze was affecting about 100 acres of corn and stubble, with a large stack of hay also catching fire.

The fire service is not treating the fire as suspicious and it was brought under control within three hours.

Nick Singleton, station manager, said: "I want to firstly thank our incredible control team, who have been flooded with emergency calls once again today.

"Particularly for this incident, they did a fantastic job of managing a lot of calls and making sure our crews got here as quickly as possible.

"Our firefighters have also done themselves proud yet again here. We've had one of our busiest ever weeks across the county and, despite high winds and the continuing dry conditions, they've got this fire under control brilliantly.

"We've seen so often this week that these fires can be incredibly dangerous - and this one could very easily have been very serious."

The incident comes after a huge blaze broke out at a common in Knodishall in east Suffolk last night.