Hatfield is a town and

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

City of Doncaster The City of Doncaster is a metropolitan borough with city status in the United Kingdom, city status in South Yorkshire, England. It is named after its principal settlement, Doncaster, and includes the surrounding suburbs of Doncaster as well as ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, England. It had a population of 17,236 at the 2011 Census. The town is located on the A18 road between

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

and

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town in Lincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement after Lincoln, England, Lincoln and Grimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021. It is the administrative centre and largest settleme ...

, and to the west of the M18 motorway. It shares a railway station with Stainforth on the line between

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's Historic counties of England, historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom censu ...

and Scunthorpe, and Doncaster. Recorded history in the parish extends as far back as 730, when

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

wrote about the Northumbrian King, Edwin, being killed in battle in the area.

History

Hatfield (called Heathfield historically) is an ancient settlement and a palace of the

Northumbria Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland. The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...

n Kingdom called Meicen, (or Meigen). On 12 October 633 AD, King Edwin was killed in the

Battle of Hatfield Chase The Battle of Hatfield Chase (; ) was fought on 12 October 633 It pitted the Northumbrians against an alliance of Gwynedd and Mercia. The Northumbrians were led by Edwin and the Gwynedd-Mercian alliance was led by Cadwallon ap Cadfan and Penda. ...

Penda Penda (died 15 November 655)Manuscript A of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' gives the year as 655. Bede also gives the year as 655 and specifies a date, 15 November. R. L. Poole (''Studies in Chronology and History'', 1934) put forward the theor ...

, King of Mercia. Penda was assisted in the battle by the Welsh under the leadership of

Cadwallon ap Cadfan Cadwallon ap Cadfan (died 634)A difference in the interpretation of Bede's dates has led to the question of whether Cadwallon was killed in 634 or the year earlier, 633. Cadwallon died in the year after the Battle of Hatfield Chase, which Bede ...

, Welsh (British) King of

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

. Osric, a possible successor to Edwin, was also killed in the battle. Edwin's son Edfrith surrendered to Penda. It is thought that the battle gave rise to the name of Slay Pit Lane in Hatfield, where it is rumoured that the battle took place and the bodies of soldiers lay close by. Hatfield 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

as having a church, a priest, various ploughlands and plough men. The area was in the possession of William de Warenne. The name Hatfield stems from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

(with a Scandinavian influence) of ''Hæþfeld''; the ''field or open land where heather and other shrubs grew''. The name was recorded by Bede as ''Heathfelth'' in 730. Hatfield Manor House is a

grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

building dating back to the 12th century. The site of the house was regraded as the site of the palace of Edwin, King of Northumbria. Notable visitors over the years have included

Edward Balliol Edward Balliol or Edward de Balliol (; – January 1364) was a claimant to the Scottish throne during the Second War of Scottish Independence. With English help, he ruled parts of the kingdom from 1332 to 1356. Early life Edward was the el ...

, Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster,

John of Gaunt John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399), was an English royal prince, military leader and statesman. He was the fourth son (third surviving) of King Edward III of England, and the father of King Henry IV. Because ...

and

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

. The Anglican St Lawrence's Church, Hatfield was built around the same time as the manor house. In 1629, Charles I sold almost of Hatfield Chase to a Dutch engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden who sold tracts of the land to other parties and spent £400,000 draining the chase and reclaiming the land. Of the land, one third was awarded to Vermuyden, one third went too the crown and the remaining third was given to the local population as common land. The parish of Hatfield was originally in the

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and in Cumberland County in the British Colony of ...

of Lower Strafforth and in the county of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was moved in the county boundary changes of 1974, into South Yorkshire. The population of the parish at the 2001 census was 16,164, which had risen to 17,236 at the 2011 census. There is an outdoor water activity centre to the north-east of the town, and two prisons, Hatfield Main and Hatfield Lakes, across the M18 to the east. HMP Lindholme is to the south-east of the town built on the former site of RAF Lindholme.

Geography

Hatfield is located within the historic boundaries of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

on the border of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

and

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, on the A18 road between

and

. The A1146 connects Hatfield with Thorne. The town is bisected by the M18 motorway. Junctions 4 and 5 of the M18, and Junction 1 of the

M180 motorway The M180 is a motorway in eastern England, starting at junction 5 on the M18 motorway in Hatfield, within the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and terminating at Barnetby, Lincolnshire, some from the port of Immingha ...

are all within the parish. Hatfield is part of the parliamentary constituency of Don Valley. Hatfield parish contains the following villages: Broadway - geograph

Dunscroft lies on the A18 road, about from the centre of

. There is Sheep Dip Lane primary school. The church is dedicated to St Edwin, however, it is intended to amalgamate the ecclesiastical parishes of Dunscroft and Hatfield and close St Edwin's Church. Dunsville lies on the A18 road, about from the centre of Doncaster. Hatfield lies on the A18 road, about from the centre of Doncaster. It is served by the Hatfield and Stainforth railway station in Stainforth and Thorne. Hatfield has numerous public houses, including ''The Bay Horse'', ''The Hatfield Chase'', ''Hatfields'', ''The Blue Bell'', ''The Ingram Arms'' and ''The Green Tree''. The original building known as ''the Abbey'' or ''Dunscroft Grange'' was demolished in 1966–7. For the final twenty years, this building was owned by Mr Harry Lewis. The old Abbey was possibly a dormitory to Roche Abbey at Maltby. It had to be demolished because the 12th-century masonry and stonework were unstable. The main school for the area is Ash Hill Academy. There is the Travis St. Lawrence Church of England Primary School, and Hatfield Crookesbroom primary school. Hatfield Woodhouse (''House in the Hatfield Wood''), is a small, semi-rural village which lies on the

A614 road The A614 is a main road in England running through the counties of Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. Route Beginning at Redhill, Nottinghamshire, Redhill, the northernmost point in the Nottingham suburb of Arno ...

, about from the centre of Doncaster. Hatfield Woodhouse also gave rise to RAF Hatfield Woodhouse two miles south of the village. The airfield was later named RAF Lindholme. Recently an application has been proposed to allow the demolition of the pub and several flats to be built in its place. This application has recently been denied due to rallies by locals to have the plans rejected. There is the Hatfield Woodhouse primary school, which was rated as being ''Good'' by

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

in 2019. Lindholme (''Lime-tree island'', () is a somewhat isolated community on the site of RAF Lindholme. It is close to Hatfield Moors nature reserve as well as to three prisons ( HMP Hatfield Lakes, HMP Lindholme and HMP Moorland). West End is a small village to the south-west of Hatfield Woodhouse.

Transport

The A18 road runs through the eastern part of Hatfield town, with the M18 and M180 motorways in the east of the parish. A proposal exists to develop land adjacent to the west side of Junction 5 on the M18, to a mixed development of housing and warehousing space known as ''Unity Park''. The development, which is projected to involve housing, a marina and a new school, has led to the creation of a new link road from Junction 5 to Waggons Way in Stainforth. Junction 5 also has a motorway service area (MSA) known as ''Doncaster North'', run by Moto. A railway from Doncaster to Thorne first arrived in July 1856 with the station being labelled simply as ''Stainforth''. It was replaced by a newer station called '' Hatfield and Stainforth'' in October 1866.

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by

BBC Yorkshire BBC Yorkshire is one of the English regions of the BBC. It was formed from the division of the former BBC North region into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, based in Kingston upon Hull. Serving West, North and South Yorkshir ...

and

ITV Yorkshire ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

Television signals are received from the Emley Moor TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Sheffield, Heart Yorkshire, Capital Yorkshire, Hits Radio South Yorkshire, Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire, TX1 Radio and

TMCR 95.3 TMCR or Today's More Choice Radio is a community radio station based in Thorne, South Yorkshire, England, broadcasting to north-east Doncaster and parts of the Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire. TMCR was set up as a Restricted Service Licenc ...

, a community based radio station which broadcast from its studios in Thorne. The town is served by these local newspapers, '' Doncaster Free Press'' and ''Thorne Times''.

Notable people

* William of Hatfield, (1336–1337), second son of

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

* Cornelius Vermuyden, (1595–1677), Dutch engineer who drained Hatfield Chase and was awarded huge tracts of land in the area for his efforts

References

External links

Hatfield Town Council

Health statistics for Hatfield

{{authority control Towns in South Yorkshire Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster Civil parishes in South Yorkshire