Hockley

 ( Villages In Essex ) 

Hockley is a large village and civil parish in Essex in the East of England located between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea, or, more specifically, between Rayleigh and Rochford. It came to prominence during the coming of the railway in the 1890s and at the 2001 census had a population of 13,616 people, reducing to 9,616 at the 2011 Census,. The parish of Hockley itself had a population of 8,909 at the (2001 census), while the urban area runs into the neighbouring parish of Hawkwell. Hockley railway station serves the village.

---

History The place-name 'Hockley' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Hocheleia. The name means "Hocca's woodland clearing or glade".Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.243. Today, there is still a large wooded area named Hockley Woods. Notable buildings in the village include the church of St Peter and Paul, which has a nave which was possibly built before the twelfth century, a thirteenth-century chancel and a fourteenth-century tower, the upper half of which is octagonal and was built at a later date. The tower holds three bells, manufactured by Miles Gray in 1626, by James Bartlett in 1684 and by John Hodgson in 1657, and the building is Grade II* listed. Church of St Peter and St Paul, Hockley The church is situated to the north-west of the village centre, where Grade II listed Spa Pump Room is situated. The building was built as a spa to a design by James Lockyer in 1842, after Robert Clay found a medicinal spring there in 1838. Hockley Spa Rooms Hockley is also the site of the former Bullwood Hall prison which closed in 2013.

Plumberow Mount, a Roman burial mound, was excavated in 1913 by Mr. E. B. Francis. At the time, there was a summer house on the top of the mound, and so trenches were cut on three sides. The excavation found a Roman currency of Domitian and some Anglo-Saxons pottery which may indicate a secondary burial. The oval mound is high, and in diameter, with a flattened top, where the summerhouse was located. Since 2005, a metal fence has surrounded the mound to protect it from erosion, and a number of trees which were growing on or near it were cut down at the same time.

In 2009, the sixteenth-century Hockley Pendant was discovered in a field at Hockley.

---

Governance Hockley has a parish council consisting of two wards (West Ward and East Ward) and is part of Rochford District Council

---

External links

• Hockley Parish Council
• The Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Hockley
• St Peter and St Paul Church, Hockley, Essex. A 360 Degree Virtual Tour
• Hockley & Hawkwell Methodist Church
• The Commy | Hockley Community Centre Association & Social Bar, Hockley
• Hawkwell Athletic Football Club

Post Comment