Hawkwell Explained

Hawkwell is a village and civil parish in the Rochford district of Essex, England. The main part of the village is contiguous with Hockley to the west. On the eastern side of the parish it also includes part of the built up area of Rochford. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 12,061.

History

Name

Over the course of history Hawkwell has been referred to by several different terms and various spellings, it appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Hacuuella or Hechuuella. It has also been called 'Hawkeswell'^[2] in the 16th century.

Settlement

The main part of Hawkwell village, to the west of the railway line, forms part of the "Hockley and Hawkwell" built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics. Hawkwell parish east of the railway is also mostly developed and forms parts of the Rochford and Ashingdon built up areas.^{[3] [4]}

The White Hart public house at the corner of Main Road and White Hart Lane was historically in Hawkwell parish, but was transferred to Hockley parish in 1994.^[5] Since then, the only public house within Hawkwell parish is the Victory Inn on Ashingdon Road at the eastern end of the parish.

Church

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin is located amidst fields between the two centres of population. The building is Grade II* listed building, and is largely from the fourteenth century, with the addition of a fifteenth-century bell turret and some other alterations. It was restored in the nineteenth century, and includes twentieth-century stained glass in the south and east windows.^[6] The building was damaged during a bombing raid on 15 September 1940. The concrete and asbestos vestry on the north side was removed in the 1990s, and was replaced by a north aisle, vestry and office constructed in a style to match the rest of the building. The extension nearly doubled the size of the building, and was opened in July 1996.^[7]

Amenities

The village has a primary school, leisure centre, pub and other amenities.

External links

• Hawkwell Residents Association
• A Blog from a Hawkwell District Councillor
• Hockley & Hawkwell Methodist Church
• Hawkwell Parish Church, St. Mary's and Emmanuel

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2021 Census Parish Profiles . NOMIS . Office for National Statistics . 31 March 2025. (To get individual parish data, use the query function on table PP002.)
2. Chapman . André . John . Peter . Fransen . Tim . Digital Map of the County of Essex 1777 . A MAP of the County of ESSEX from an Actual Survey taken in MD CCLXXII:LXXIII & MDCCLXXIV by John Chapman & Peter André . Biblioteca Virtual del Patrimonio Bibliográfico . Plate XVIII . 2025-03-29.
3. Web site: Election Maps . Ordnance Survey . 28 November 2025.
4. Web site: Built up areas (December 2022) boundaries . Office for National Statistics . 28 November 2025.
5. Web site: The Rochford (Parishes) Order 1994 . Local Government Boundary Commission for England . The National Archives . 28 November 2025.
6. Church of St Mary the Virgin, Hawkwell
7. Web site: The History of Hawkwell . Margaret Chambers . Hawkwell Residents Association . 2011-03-22 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110817175825/http://hawkwell.org/16226.html . 2011-08-17 .