Hatfield Heath

Hatfield Heath is a village, civil parish, and an electoral ward in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, and at its west is close to the border with Hertfordshire.

By the third quarter of the 18th-century the heath (today's village green), had cottages around its edge, and by the 19th century two schools, a church and a brewery.

[2] The 1870-72 Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales entry for Hatfield Heath describes: ...a chapelry in Hatfield-Broad Oak parish, Essex; 1¾ mile SW of Hatfield-broad-Oak, and 2½ E of Sawbridgeworth r. station.

The church was built in 1860; is in the early English style; and consists of nave and chancel, with tower and spire.

[2] Kelly's Directory noted in 1902 at Hatfield Heath a Gothic style independent Congregational "chapel" seating 300, built in 1876.

A second British School was built concurrently with the present church; it housed places for 150 mixed children, and by 1902 had an average attendance of about 70.

[6][7] An original bridge over Pincey Brook on the road to Matching south from Hatfield Heath dates to before the late 13th-century.

[2] A significant estate at Hatfield Heath is 'Gladwyns' (today on Sheering Road (B183) at the southwest of the village); it was named as such in the early 14th-century during the reign of King Edward II.

The early 19th-century house on the estate, within grounds of 3 acres, was in 1902 occupied by Horace Broke J.P. (1827-1909), and was Grade II listed in 1981.

In 2018 a proposal by a construction company to redevelop the decaying site for housing was presented to Uttlesford District Council.

[14] Hatfield Heath village businesses, chiefly centred at the north of the village green along the A1060, include Thai and Indian restaurants, a kebab shop, fish and chip shop, two public houses, a tearoom, a bakery[15], a stationers and print shop, a dog parlour, GP surgery, two churches, a village hall, a primary school, two hotels, a seafood bar, a grocery store and multiple hairdressers.

Its main purpose now is provide the community with a weekend of events, as well as another being created which also occurs annually in early Autumn.

Hatfield Heath Cricket Club supports four teams, with its home ground the village green.

Buses provide routes between Harlow and Chelmsford via The Rodings and Sheering[19], as well as a less frequent service between Stansted Airport and Bishop's Stortford via Little Hallingbury and Hatfield Broad Oak.

'Doune Bridge' over Pincey Brook
Hatfield Heath village green cricket match