{{Short description|Village in Essex, England}} {{more citations needed|date=June 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}} {{Use British English|date=June 2017}} {{Infobox UK place |country = England |coordinates = {{coord|51.76906|0.59281|display=inline,title}} |official_name= Hatfield Peverel |population = 4,285 | population_ref = (Parish, 2021)<ref name=2021census>{{cite web |title=2021 Census Parish Profiles |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021_pp |website=NOMIS |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=31 March 2025}} (To get individual parish data, use the query function on table PP002.)</ref><br/>{{nowrap|3,797 (Built up area, 2021)<ref name=ONS>{{cite web |title=Population estimates - small area (2021 based) by single year of age - England and Wales |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/advanced.aspx |website=NOMIS |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=19 April 2025}} To get data for individual built-up areas, query the 'Population Estimates / Projections' dataset, then the 'Small area (2021 based) by single year of age - England and Wales' and then choose '2022 built-up areas' for the geography.</ref>}} | area_total_km2 = 1.090 |shire_district= Braintree |shire_county = Essex |region= East of England |constituency_westminster= Witham |post_town= CHELMSFORD |postcode_area=CM |postcode_district=CM3 |dial_code= 01245 |os_grid_reference= TL7911 |static_image_name = St. Andrew's church, Hatfield Peverel, Essex - geograph.org.uk - 136598.jpg |static_image_caption= St. Andrew's church, Hatfield Peverel }}
'''Hatfield Peverel''' is a village and civil parish at the centre of Essex, England. It is located 6 miles (10 km) north-east from Chelmsford, the nearest large city, to which it is connected by road and rail. The parish includes the hamlets of Nounsley and Mowden. ''Hatfield'' means a 'heathery space in the forest'; ''Peverel'' refers to William Peverel, the Norman knight granted lands in the area by William the Conqueror after the Norman invasion of 1066. Sited on high ground east of the River Ter, between Boreham and Witham on the A12, it is situated in the southern extremity of the Braintree District Council area (to which it elects two members).
At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 4,285 and the built up area had a population of 3,797.
Hatfield Peverel is the site of a priory founded by the Saxon Ingelrica, wife of Ranulph Peverel and reputed to be the mistress of William the Conqueror, to atone for her sins, and dissolved by Henry VIII.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}
==Local amenities==
The parish church, St Andrew's (Church of England) is the surviving fragment of the Norman priory church nave. There is also a Methodist Church.
The village has a junior school, St. Andrew's C of E, and an adjacent infant school; Scout and Guide organisations, with headquarters in Church Road; a post office; a library; and a doctors' surgery.
==Economy==
Hatfield Peverel was the site of an Arla Foods factory which closed in July 2016; primarily, it used to produce dairy products. The factory was subsequently demolished and there are plans to build up to 177 houses on the former site.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/14920833.Abandoned_dairy_could_be_turned_into_177_homes|title=Abandoned dairy could be turned into 177 homes|website=Braintree and Witham Times|language=en|access-date=2017-08-22}}</ref> There are six public houses, a farm shop and other retail outlets. Main housing areas include Berwick Place, Crix, Hatfield Place, Hatfield Wick and The Priory.
==Transport== Hatfield Peverel railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line. It is served by Greater Anglia services from London Liverpool Street to Colchester and Ipswich.
The station is seen in the 1976 film ''Exposé'' starring Linda Hayden and Fiona Richmond, along with views of the surrounding countryside.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}
The village is served by First Essex's route 71 bus service which runs between Chelmsford and Colchester.
==Sport==
Hatfield Peverel Football Club has been established since 1903; it was originally based at the Duke of Wellington public house, before moving to the Recreation Ground in 1936. The club are now based on the outskirts of the village at a former gravel pit at Wickham Bishops Road and fields men's, ladies' and junior teams.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}
Hatfield Peverel Cricket Club has been established since 1885. The club is based at the Church Road Ground, the club offers a range of teams: HPCC 1st XI & HPCC 2nd XI (Mid Essex Cricket League), Friendly Teams - The Famous ''Allstars'' T20 team and HPCC Sunday XI.
== Agnes Waterhouse == {{main|Agnes Waterhouse|Elizabeth Frauncis}}
Hatfield Peverel was home to Agnes Waterhouse, one of the first women executed for witchcraft in England under Queen Elizabeth I.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Gibson |first=Marion |date=29 July 2021 |title=The Trial of Agnes Waterhouse – Witchcraft in Essex, 1566 |url=https://www.essexrecordofficeblog.co.uk/the-trial-of-agnes-waterhouse-witchcraft-in-essex-1566/ |website=Essex Record Office}}</ref> Known locally as Mother Waterhouse, she was accused of witchcraft by Elizabeth Frauncis, who may have been her sister,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Purkiss |first=Diane |title=The witch in history: early modern and twentieth-century representations |date=1996 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-08761-2 |location=London; New York |pages=147}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gibson |first=Marion |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Early_Modern_Witches/1lWGAgAAQBAJ |title=Early Modern Witches: Witchcraft Cases in Contemporary Writing |date=2005-10-07 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-60763-1 |pages=18 |language=en}}</ref> and a child named Agnes Browne.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Notestein |first=Wallace |author-link=Wallace Notestein |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31511/pg31511-images.html |title=A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 |date=1911 |publisher=The American Historical Association |location=Washington |pages=33–56 |language=en |via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> The 1566 trial inspired the first entry into a literary body of pamphlets on witch trials,'''<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Levack |first=Brian P. |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Oxford_Handbook_of_Witchcraft_in_Ear/Lum96_FPZp0C |title=The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America |date=2013-03-28 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-957816-0 |pages=291–292 |language=en}}</ref>''' or, salacious texts published cheaply for general audiences.<ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Gibson |first=Marion |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Early_Modern_Witches/1lWGAgAAQBAJ |title=Early Modern Witches: Witchcraft Cases in Contemporary Writing |date=2005-10-07 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-60763-1 |pages=10, 41 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Francisconi |first=Tsea |date=2022-03-04 |title=Witch Pamphlets |url=https://scholarworks.umt.edu/gsrc/2022/arts2/1 |journal=UM Graduate Student Research Conference (GradCon)}}</ref>
According to this pamphlet, Frauncis admitted to having a familiar named Sathan, a cat to whom she fed drops of her blood in return for wishes that did harm to others.<ref name=":172">{{Cite news |last=Anon |date=23 August 1566 |title=The Examination and Confession of certain Witches at Chelmsford in the County of Essex |url=https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_the-examination-and-conf_phillips-john_1566/ |work=Willyam Powell |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> (This case was also the first to popularise the concept of a witch's familiar during the witch trials in England.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Maev |date=2017-10-31 |title=West Country witchcraft and the hanged women of urban Exeter |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/31/west-country-witches-witchcraft-witches-hanged |access-date=2026-03-31 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>) Frauncis eventually sold the cat to Mother Waterhouse.'''<ref name=":172"/>''' She and her daughter Joan confessed to using the cat for sorcery, culminating in the death of a man named William Fynne and the torment of a child named Agnes Browne.'''<ref name=":172" />''' It is likely that Agnes Waterhouse confessed to the crime in order to save the life of her daughter.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |last=Kesselring |first=Krista |date=2024-01-12 |title=Elizabethan England's First Witches |url=https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2024/01/12/elizabethan-englands-first-witches/ |access-date=2026-03-30 |website=Legal History Miscellany |language=en}}</ref> Agnes was executed two days after the trial based on the evidence and word of the child.<ref name=":0" />
==Listed buildings== {{main|Listed buildings in Hatfield Peverel}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Hatfield Peverel}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20130811234041/http://www.hatfieldpeverelonline.com/ Hatfield Peverel Online] * [http://www.hatfieldpeverel.org.uk Hatfield Peverel] * http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/hatfieldpeverelfc * https://wheatsheaf.net
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Category:Hatfield Peverel Category:Villages in Essex Category:Civil parishes in Essex Category:Braintree District