White Notley is a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, an ...

, England. The settlement (which includes the outlying hamlet of The Green) lies equidistant between the towns of Witham and Braintree amongst arable farmland, in each direction. White Notley is a

quintessentially English The culture of England is defined by the cultural norms of England and the English people. Owing to England's influential position within the United Kingdom it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate English culture from the culture of the ...

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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

was measured at 522. Railway service is provided at the White Notley railway station on the

Braintree Branch Line The Braintree branch line is a railway branch line in the East of England that diverges from the Great Eastern Main Line at and runs north-west to . The route is in length and there are five stations, including the two termini. The line is p ...

. It forms part of the Parliamentary Constituency of Witham.

History

Remains from a settlement dating to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pr ...

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

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villa ...

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 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 (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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

(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 ( la, Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), also known as the Order of Solomon's Temple, the Knights Templar, or simply the Templars, was a Catholic military order, o ...

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 ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically o ...

(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 The Essex Olympian Football League is a football competition based in England, founded in the 1966–67 season. It has a total of six senior divisions and one under 21 division. The Premier Division sits at step 7 (or level 11) of the National ...

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 association football, football competition based 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 Syst ...

References

External links

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