East Hanningfield is a small village in south

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, England. It is situated to the southeast of

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...

and to the northwest of

South Woodham Ferrers South Woodham Ferrers is a town and civil parish in the borough of Chelmsford, in the English county of Essex. It is approximately from London and southeast of the city of Chelmsford, and had a population of 16,453 at the 2011 Census, a decre ...

, with a population of ? It is surrounded by the villages of Butts Green, Bicknacre, Woodham Ferrers,

West Hanningfield West Hanningfield is a small village and civil parish in south Essex, England. It is located approximately south-south-east of the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the borough of Chelmsford and in the parliamentary constituency of M ...

, Howe Green, and

Rettendon Rettendon is a small village and civil parish in the Borough of Chelmsford in Essex, England, about south east of the city of Chelmsford. Situated near the River Crouch, the village was once owned by the Bishop of Ely. The A130 formerly passed ...

. The village contains All Saints' Church (C of E), a primary school, 'The Folly Bistro'Restaurant (situated in the Former Windmill Tavern Public House and dating from the late 17th Century), 'Vita Bella' Italian restaurant (situated in the former 'The Three Horseshoes' public house), a new village hall and a post office.

RHS Garden, Hyde Hall RHS Garden Hyde Hall is a public display garden run by the Royal Horticultural Society in the English county of Essex. It is one of five public gardens run by the society, alongside Wisley in Surrey, Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire, Rosemoor in ...

is situated near by.

Origins

The earliest appearance of the name Hanningfield was in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086, where it was spelt Haningefelda and Haneghefelda and it is thought to date from the

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

colonisation period between the 5th-7th centuries, and to mean the open country (feld), of the people (inga), of Hana or Han. In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described East Hanningfield as:

HANNINGFIELD (EAST), a parish in Chelmsford district, Essex; 3½ miles N of the river Crouch, and 6 SE of Chelmsford r. station. Post town, Chelmsford. Acres, 2, 446. Real property, £3, 323. Pop., 453. Houses, 94. The property is subdivided. The manor belongs to Lord Petre. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £417.* Patron,Nottidge, Esq. The church is later English; and consists of nave, chancel, and north chapel, with a steeple. Charities, £13.

All Saints' Church

The current Church, consecrated by the Bishop of St Albans in June 1885, is not the first to be built in East Hanningfield. In the 7th Century, the local Saxon Chief was converted to Christianity and built a church near where he lived at East Hanningfield Hall. This was the first All Saints' Church and it stood for over 1000 years until there was a fire in 1883. The fire engine was summoned from Chelmsford by a messenger on horseback, but sadly, by the time it arrived the church had burnt down. The heat of the fire was so great that the bells melted and fell as a shower of molten metal in the west end of the Church. This metal was later salvaged by the local schoolchildren and used to make bells for the new church, recast by Mears and Stainbank of the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

. The insurance from the fire (£1000) was not enough to cover the rebuilding costs, and the villagers of East Hanningfield raised the rest of the money, a further £2500, themselves. The site for the new church in the centre of the village was donated by Elijah Slater, a retired wool merchant. In 2012 the building was Grade II listed. You are still able to walk around the graveyard of the first All Saints' Church, situated in a small wood next to East Hanningfield Hall.

Other Points of Incident

On the whole life in East Hanningfield has been fairly quiet through the centuries with a few unhappy exceptions. Two residents were hanged for their part in the

Peasants' Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Blac ...

of 1381. There was a riot about hay in 1571, and accusations of witchcraft in 1590 and 1608.

References

For a more detailed explanation of the dating of the name and for references to sources please refer to Study of the Parish Landscape by K. Plumridge 1997 which can be found at: https://e-voice.org.uk/easthanningfieldparishcouncil/publications/study-resources/parish-landscape-study/

External links

{{Chelmsford Villages in Essex

Origins

All Saints' Church

Other Points of Incident

See also

References

External links