Braintree and Bocking is an

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unpa ...

in the Braintree district, in the county of

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, 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 Riv ...

, England. It is around 10 miles from

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of Londo ...

. It includes Braintree, Bocking, Bocking Churchstreet, High Garrett and Thistley Green. In 2021 it had a population of 45,168. It borders

Black Notley Black Notley is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located approximately south of Braintree and is north-northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. According to the 2011 census including Young's End it had a population of ...

, Cressing,

Gosfield Gosfield is a village in the Braintree district of Essex, England. It is located around two miles west of the town of Halstead. Places of note include the following: * Gosfield Hall: a country house and Grade I listed building, dating back to 15 ...

, Great Notley, Panfield, Rayne, Shalford,

Stisted Stisted is a civil parish, Church of England parish, and former manor near Braintree, Essex, England. Andrew Motion, a former Poet Laureate, was raised there. History of Stisted Stisted parish was a peculiar, held by the Dean of Bocking under ...

and Wethersfield.

History

The parish was formed on 1 April 1934 from "Braintree" and "Bocking" parishes and parts of

, Rayne and

. Braintree and Bocking parish was an urban parish of Braintree and Bocking Urban District, thus having no parish council or meeting, instead relying only on the district council. Braintree and Bocking Urban District had been called just "Braintree Urban District" until 1934. The council was based at Braintree Town Hall. On 1 April 1974, Braintree and Bocking Urban district was abolished and merged with

Halstead Halstead is a town and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex, England. Its population of 11,906 in 2011 Witham Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Che ...

Urban District to form a new Braintree

non-metropolitan district Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of Districts of England, local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shi ...

. Braintree and Bocking did not have a

successor parish Successor parishes are civil parishes with a parish council, created in England in 1974. They replaced, with the same boundaries, a selected group of urban districts and municipal boroughs: a total of 300 successor parishes were formed from the ...

so became an unparished area. As of 2023 Braintree and Bocking remains the only unparished area in Braintree district though there have been proposals for it to be parished. Halstead had a successor parish and Witham was parished in 1982.

References

{{Reflist Unparished areas in Essex Former civil parishes in Essex Braintree District