Hockley
Village in Essex, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
- Hockley
| Hockley | |
|---|---|
Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul | |
  Hockley Location within Essex | |
 Interactive map of Hockley | |
| 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 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".[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
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]
