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Home> Maps> Local names in Kelvedon Hatch

The history of some local names in Kelvedon Hatch.

When John Wright purchased the manor of Kelvedon Hall in 1538 the names of many of the farms, fields and landmarks had been well established. Most of them were named after their owners and these have been handed down through the centuries.

During the period 1100 - 1200 A.D. there had been a trebling of the English population and Kelvedon Hatch would have seen the fixing of the parish boundary, assarting (creation of new fields), with land ownership and common land entitlements proved in documents and identified by name.

The name Kelvedon Hatch comes from the Saxon 'Kelvenduna' or 'Keleduna' meaning Speckled or Spotted Hill. This may have referred to the colour of the trees in the autumn or that the ground was very stoney. Indeed some the fields near to Hatch Farm are very stoney, almost like a beach, the remains of a beach from when the area was covered by an inland sea 55 million years ago.

Hatch means a gate or fence leading into a forest or common and there was probably one situated near to Hatch Farm. Nearby Dodds Farm has two fields called Farther Hatch Field and Hither Hatch Field. Records indicate that in 1248, in the parish lived Hugo de Hec, or de la Hec, meaning - 'of or about'. Hec is from the Latin Hecca (and later Old English), meaning hedge or fence. In 1327, there is mentioned a Ralphe or Radulpho atte Hacche.

By the 16th century, other variations of the spelling of Kelvedon appear on records: Keluedo, Kelweydon, Kelwedon and Keldon, the latter name up until the 19th century was used in the manorial documents and by the villagers.

Dodds Farm is probably named after a Dod who owned land. There is also a Dods Brook which later became Dudbrook in the neighbouring parish of Navestock.

Great Myles's is named after Milo or Miles de Munteny who held the estate in 1318. Germains Farm named after John Germayne (1327). Priors after Thomas Priour and his family (1337). Thomas Brice held a house which later became known as Brizes.

• Lay Subsidy of Essex 1327
• Kellewedone / Kelewedone
• De Ricardo de Welleby / Weleby
• Milone de Mounteny / Munteny
• Johanne de Oterynbery / Oteryngbery
• Roberto Madefrey
• Johanne Germayn
• Ricardo Coco
• Clemente Baldewyne/Baldewyn
• Radulpho atte Hacche
• Willelmo ad Crucem
• Ricardo le Turnour
• Willelmo Sherebred/Sherebred

News from the past: Parish Magazine 1893.
"KELDON" LADS

Sir,--
Will anyone help us boys?
We have nowhere to play out of school hours - not even the playground - except the roads. Here we get into trouble by doing things we ought not to, so people call us a rough and rude lot. Is it fair? Do we boys of Keldon Parish have even a chance given us of doing any better? Do, someone, lend us a field to play in; we should love to have a game of cricket and rounders. Then people would begin to say what a nice behaved lot those Keldon Lads are.
Yours obediently,
YOUNG KELDON

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