Hockley
| Hockley | |
|---|---|
| File:St Peter ^ St Paul Church - geograph.org.uk - 2748970.jpg Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul | |
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| Population | 9,639 (Parish, 2021)[1] 15,425 (Hockley and Hawkwell built up area, 2021)[2] |
| OS grid reference | TQ826924 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | HOCKLEY |
| Postcode district | SS5 |
| Dialling code | 01702 |
| Police | Essex |
| Fire | Essex |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
Hockley is a large village and civil parish in the Rochford District of Essex, England. It is 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.[3] At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 9,639. The urban area has grown to be contiguous with the neighbouring village of Hawkwell; the Office for National Statistics now classes them as a single built up area that it calls "Hockley and Hawkwell", which had a population of 15,425 in 2021.
Recently the local residents have nicknamed the village ‘blockley’ as a result of extremely poor road closure planning by Essex County Council. It is an extremely common occurrence of having at least one (but normally two or three) sets of temporary traffic lights on the main road between Rayleigh and Hockley. It is a well supported view that Essex County Council does not properly view applications for road closures in the area and as such many applications are accepted, when in fact a high percentage of applications could be rescheduled to cause a much reduced inconvenience to tax paying residents. Hockley is also famed for having a higher than average amount of potholes that always occur in similar locations, suggesting that previous attempt to fix are either not properly reviewed on completion, or inadequate materials are used to fix the many holes, due to poorly managed maintenance contracts.
Hockley railway station serves the village.
History
[edit | edit source]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".[4] 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.[5] 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.[6] Hockley is also the site of the former Bullwood Hall prison which closed in 2013.[7]
Plumberow Mount, a Roman burial mound,[8] 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 coin of Domitian and some Saxon pottery which may indicate a secondary burial. The oval mound is 14 feet (4.3 m) high, and 76 feet (23 m) in diameter, with a flattened top, where the summerhouse was located.[9] 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.[10]
In 2009, the sixteenth-century Hockley Pendant was discovered in a field at Hockley.[11]
Governance
[edit | edit source]Hockley has a parish council consisting of two wards (West Ward and East Ward)[12] and is part of Rochford District Council[13]
The parish historically included Hullbridge, which was made a separate civil parish in 1964.[14]
References
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- ^ Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.243.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). Church of St Peter and St Paul, Hockley
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). Hockley Spa Rooms
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons
- 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
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