| Country: | England | ||||||
| Official Name: | Hockley | ||||||
| Coordinates: | 51.6014°N 0.6363°W | ||||||
| Population: | 9,616 | ||||||
| Population Ref: | (2011) | ||||||
| Civil Parish: | Hockley | ||||||
| Shire District: | Rochford | ||||||
| Shire County: | Essex | ||||||
| Region: | East of England | ||||||
| Constituency Westminster: | Rayleigh | ||||||
| Post Town: | HOCKLEY | ||||||
| Postcode District: | SS5 | ||||||
| Postcode Area: | SS | ||||||
| Dial Code: | 01702 | ||||||
| Os Grid Reference: | TQ826924 | ||||||
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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[1] and at the 2001 census had a population of 13,616 people,[2] 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.
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".[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] Hockley is also the site of the former Bullwood Hall prison which closed in 2013.[6]
Plumberow Mount, a Roman burial mound,[7] 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 14feet high, and 76feet 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.[8]
In 2009, the sixteenth-century Hockley Pendant was discovered in a field at Hockley.[9]
Hockley has a parish council consisting of two wards[10] and is part of Rochford District Council[11]