| Country: | England |
| Official Name: | Hockley |
| Coordinates: | 51.6014°N 0.6363°W |
| Static Image Name: | St Peter ^ St Paul Church - geograph.org.uk - 2748970.jpg |
| Static Image Caption: | Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul |
| Population: | 9,639 |
| Population Ref: | (Parish, 2021)[1] 15,425 (Hockley and Hawkwell built up area, 2021)[2] |
| 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 |
| Mapframe: | yes |
| Mapframe-Zoom: | 12 |
| Mapframe-Point: | none |
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 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".[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 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.[9]
In 2009, the sixteenth-century Hockley Pendant was discovered in a field at Hockley.[10]
Hockley has a parish council consisting of two wards (West Ward and East Ward)[11] and is part of Rochford District Council[12]
The parish historically included Hullbridge, which was made a separate civil parish in 1964.[13]
