The French held Eastern piece of land (3)
I believe the answer is:
lea
'piece of land' is the definition.
(lea is a kind of piece of land)
'the french held eastern' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'la' ('the' in French).
'held' indicates putting letters inside.
'eastern' becomes 'e'.
'la' placed around 'e' is 'LEA'.
(Other definitions for lea that I've seen before include "Field" , "authority for teachers" , "River of east London" , "Meadow (poetic)" , "Land growing grass" .)