Anglo-Saxon Cockayne Hatley

The name Hatley derives from the Old English ‘Haeda’s leah’, meaning a clearing belonging to Heada, suggesting that the settlement was originally Anglo-Saxon. The first reference to Cockayne Hatley is as ‘Hattenleia’ or Haettenleia’ in two tenth century charters in which Efelmus and his wife Affa granted land to Ramsey Abbey. These probably date from around the time of the abbey’s foundation in 969.  

In 1066 Cockayne Hatley was held along with the Cambridgeshire settlements of Hatley St George and East Hatley by Ulmar, a thegn of King Edward the Confessor, suggesting that they may originally have been considered a single community.