White Notley is a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. The settlement (which includes the outlying hamlet of The Green) lies equidistant between the towns of

Witham Witham () is a town and civil parish in the Braintree district, in the county of Essex, England. In the 2011 census, it had a population of 25,353. It is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands on the Roman road between the ...

and Braintree amongst arable farmland, in each direction. White Notley is a quintessentially English village with a small primary school, public house, railway station, post office, village hall and a 10th-century church. The village has a population of fewer than five hundred inhabitants, but at the 2011 Census the population of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

was measured at 522. Railway service is provided at the

White Notley railway station White Notley railway station is on the Braintree Branch Line in the East of England, serving the village of White Notley, Essex. It is down the line from Liverpool Street station, London Liverpool Street and it is situated between to the south ...

on the Braintree Branch Line. It forms part of the Parliamentary Constituency of Witham.

History

Remains from a settlement dating to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

have been found in the centre of the village, including pottery and tools. Extensive remains from the

Roman age In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

have been found, including a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

and tombs, yielding artifacts such as pottery, glassware and remains of buildings. On the same site fragments of pottery typical of that manufactured by the

Ancient Britons The Britons (Linguistic reconstruction, *''Pritanī'', , ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Celts, Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point ...

have also been found. When the bridge over the River Brain was rebuilt in the 20th century, Roman horseshoes and a harness were discovered. White Notley and the larger neighbouring village of

Black Notley Black Notley is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located approximately south of Braintree, Essex, Braintree and is north-northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. According to the 2011 census including Young's End it ha ...

(located to the north-west) formerly constituted one township – Notley. The name is supposed to have been derived from the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "''knut''" and "''ley''" (meaning "nut pasture") and is mentioned 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

(1086 A.D.) as Nutle . The hazel trees for which the Anglo-Saxon settlement was named still proliferate around the village and in the hedgerows of the surrounding fields. It is close to the location of the former

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

Preceptory of Cressing Temple. The religious centre of the village is St. Etheldreda's church, built on the site of the earlier Roman temple, on what is now named Church Hill, opposite the 16th-century White Notley Hall and adjacent to the 17th-century

Vicarage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or Minister (Christianity), ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of n ...

(Old Vicarage since 1987). The church is principally of 10th-century construction, with much Roman brick and stonework in its fabric, from the villa and the earlier temple. The niches on either side of the nave arch are thought to be a survival from the temple itself. Of note is a small mediaeval stained glass window in the vestry, which depicts St. Etheldreda, and is set in a stone frame reused from an Anglo-Saxon grave marker.

Football club

The local football club, White Notley F.C., was formed on 12 May 1950, and joined the Essex Intermediate League Division Two in 1988. In the 2001-02 season the club finished second, and was promoted to Division One. After finishing 11th out of 12 teams in the 2003-04 season, the club was relegated to Division Two, but was promoted the following season after winning the Division Two championship.White Notley in the Essex Olympian Football League
/ref> In the 2006-07 season they were members of the Essex Olympian Football League Division One, finishing in third place, but then transferred to the

Essex and Suffolk Border Football League The Essex and Suffolk Border Football League is a football competition in England. The league has a total of four divisions headed by the Premier Division which sits at step 7 (or level 11) of the National League System. The top club may apply f ...

References

External links

White Notley & Faulkbourne Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Essex Braintree District