White Notley

White Notley is a parish in Essex, England. The settlement (which includes the outlying hamlet of The Green) lies equidistant between the towns of Witham and Braintree amongst arable farmland, 4 miles in each direction. White Notley is a quintessentially English 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 was measured at 522. Railway service is provided at the White Notley railway station on the Braintree Branch Line.

Remains from a settlement dating to the Bronze Age 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 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 3 miles 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 (1086 A.D.) as Nutle[i]a. 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 Preceptory of Cressing Temple.

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