Bocking

Both parts of Bocking now form part of the Braintree built up area. Bocking forms an electoral division for Essex County Council elections, and gives its name to Bocking Blackwater, Bocking North and Bocking South wards of Braintree District Council.

• Official Name — Bocking • Country — England • Region — East of England • Post Town — Braintree • Postcode Area — CM • Postcode District — CM7 • Shire District — Braintree • Shire County — Essex • Hide Services — Yes

In 1290 on 16 September, Bocking was visited by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John of Peckham, who there ordained to the priesthood William of Louth, bishop-elect of Ely. In 1381, on 4 June, Bocking was the site of the first sit-down discussions between rebels leading to the full Peasants' Revolt, and the subsequent march towards London. The Deanery Church of St Mary, Bocking, is mainly 15th- and 16th-century flint and limestone, with 19th-century restoration, built on a more ancient church site. It is Grade I listed. The grounds of the church contain a memorial bench to local singer Keith Flint (1969–2019), best known as frontman of The Prodigy. St Peter's Parish Church was built in 1896-97 of yellow brick, in a design intended to be extended at a later date, and is still unfinished; its website describes it as "unusual in appearance from the outside". Bocking Windmill is a preserved 18th-century post mill and is Grade I listed. It is owned by Braintree District Council and run by the Friends of Bocking Windmill. In 1862 Kelly's Directory of Essex already stated that "Braintree and Bocking, although distinct parishes, form one continuous town, extending for a mile on the road between Chelmsford and Halstead, and the rivers Blackwater and Podsbrook, and having a united population in 1861 of 8,186." Bocking was an ancient parish. The parish was abolished in 1934, when most of its area (including the old village of Bocking) merging with the adjoining urban district of Braintree, with the new urban district being called Braintree and Bocking. Smaller parts of the old parish were transferred instead to the neighbouring parishes of Gosfield and Stisted. At the 1931 census (the last before the abolition of the civil parish), Bocking had a population of 4,274. Braintree and Bocking Urban District was abolished in 1974, becoming part of the wider Braintree District. No successor parish was created for the former urban district and so Bocking is directly administered by Braintree District Council.

Bocking has one school called Bocking Church Street School. It used to have another school called Edith Borthwick School but that moved to Springwood Drive in Braintree in September 2015 because its old school in Bocking was too small.

The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales gave the following description of Bocking in 1870-1872:

H. G. Wells, in his What Is Coming? A European Forecast (1916), in the fourth chapter, "Braintree, Bocking, and the Future of the World," uses the differences between Bocking and Braintree, divided, he says, by a single road, to explain the difficulties he expects in establishing World Peace through a World State.