Bocking, Essex

Bocking
Bocking
	; St Mary's Church, Bocking Churchstreet
	Bocking Location within Essex
District	Braintree;
Shire county	Essex;
Region	East;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BRAINTREE
Postcode district	CM7

Bocking is an area of Braintree, Essex, England, which was a former village and civil parish. In 1934 it became part of the civil parish of Braintree and Bocking,[1] which is now within Braintree District.

It forms an electoral ward for Essex County Council elections,[2] and gives its name to Bocking Blackwater, Bocking North and Bocking South wards of Braintree District Council.[3]

History

In 1290 on 16th September, Bocking was visited by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John of Peckham, who there ordained to the priesthood William of Louth, bishop-elect of Ely.[4]

In 1381, on 4 June, Bocking was the site of the first sit-down discussions between rebels leading to the full Peasants' Revolt, and the subsequent march towards London.[5]

The Deanery Church of St Mary, Bocking, is mainly 15th and 16th century flint and limestone, with 19th century restoration, built on a more ancient church site.[6] It is grade I listed.[7] St Peter's Parish Church was built in 1896-97 of yellow brick, in a design intended to be extended at a later date, and is still unfinished; its website describes it as "unusual in appearance from the outside".[8]

Bocking Windmill is a preserved 18th-century post mill and is grade I listed.[9] It is owned by Braintree District Council and run by the Friends of Bocking Windmill.[10]

In 1862 Kelly's Directory of Essex already stated that "Braintree and Bocking, although distinct parishes, form one continuous town, extending for a mile on the road between Chelmsford and Halstead, and the rivers Blackwater and Podsbrook, and having a united population in 1861 of 8,186."[11]

Education

Bocking has one school called Bocking Church Street School.[12] It used to have another school called Edith Borthwick School but they moved to Springwood Drive in Braintree in September 2015 because their old school in Bocking was too small.[13]

Bocking in 1870-72

The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales gave the following description of Bocking in 1870-1872:

Bocking: a village, a parish and a sub-district, in Braintree, Essex. The village stands on the left bank of the Blackwater river, and on the Braintree railway, adjacent to Braintree; forms a suburb of that town; consists chiefly of one long street; and is a seat of petty sessions.

A trade in baizes, called 'bockings', was at one time prominent; and the manufacture of silk and crape is still carried on.

The parish includes also Bocking-street and Bocking-Church-street, 3/4 and 2 miles distant from Braintree, both with post offices under that town, and the former situated on the branch Roman road from Chelmsford. Acres: 4, 607. Real property: £15, 156. Pop.: 3, 555. Houses: 768. The property is much sub-divided.

The Manor was given by Ethelred to the See of Canterbury; and belongs now to the corporation of the sons of the clergy. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value: £923. Patron: the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is early English, had anciently 3 altars and 5 chantries, and contains some monuments and 2 brasses. There are: an Independent chapel, much improved in 1869; a charity school, with £50; and other charities, with £172. Dr. Dale, the author of 'Pharmacologia', was a native.
The sub-district contains 5 parishes. Acres: 11, 507. Pop.: 5,281. Houses: 1, 171.

H.G.Wells on Bocking

H. G. Wells, in his What Is Coming? A European Forecast (1916), in the fourth chapter, "Braintree, Bocking, and the Future of the World," uses the differences between Bocking and Braintree, divided, he says, by a single road, to explain the difficulties he expects in establishing World Peace through a World State.

If the curious enquirer will take pick and shovel he will find at any rate one corresponding dualism below the surface. He will find a Bocking water main supplying the houses on the north side and a Braintree water main supplying the south. I rather suspect that the drains are also in duplicate. The total population of Bocking and Braintree is probably little more than thirteen thousand souls altogether, but for that there are two water supplies, two sets of schools, two administrations. To the passing observer the rurality of the Bocking side is indistinguishable from the urbanity of the Braintree side; it is just a little muddier.

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References

"Bocking CP/AP". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
"Councillors". Essex County Council. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
"Councillors by ward". Braintree District Council. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
Continuatio Historiae Eliensis in H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra I (London 1691) p. 639
Sumption, Jonathan (2009). Divided Houses: the Hundred Years War III. London: Faber and Faber. pp. 420–421. ISBN 978-0-571-24012-8.
"A Brief History of St. Mary's". The Deanery Church of St Mary the Virgin, Bocking. Archived from the original on 2 September 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
Historic England. "Church of St Mary the Virgin (1122530)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
"About St Peter's". St Peter's Parish Church, Bocking. Archived from the original on 8 November 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
Historic England. "Bocking Windmill (1005572)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
"Welcome". Friends of Bocking Windmill. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
Kelly's Directory of Essex. 1862. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016. Quoted in GENUKI
"Home page". Bocking Church Street School. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
Lucas, John (6 October 2015). "New school building unveiled to parents". Braintree and Witham Times. Retrieved 1 February 2019.