Hatfield is a small Village, which was once part of a Royal Hunting ground called Hatfield Chace, it is around 8 miles from Doncaster. In AD 633 a battle is said to have taken place in Hatfield. At the time of the Doomsday Book (1086) Hatfield village and chase were part of the Fee of Conisbrough  a large area given to William de Warenne by his father-in-law William the Conqueror. Hatfield Chace was the largest deer park in England, stretching from Armthorpe to the Isle of Axholme and North of the River Idle to Goole. The Chace was a Royal forest between the mid fourteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Thousands of red deer and other species were managed for hunting. Royal ownership ended in 1629. From Hatfield to the River Humber was Marshland, mostly navigated by boats. Part of the Chace would have been made up of Common Land, Carrs ‘a carr is a damp boggy wood of Alder and Willow’, and of course a large bog which is still in Hatfield today. Hatfield and Thorne moors are the largest low lying bog's in the country.

Poaching from the Chace was very much frowned upon either resulting in mutilation or death. There were once a large number of Swans who were looked after by the Kings Swanniers. The Swans swam and fed in the mere and local rivers where food was plentiful. Today we once again have a healthy population of swans at Hatfield.

When King Charles 1st came to the throne he had huge debts, so he had the land surrounding Hatfield drained by Cornelius Vermuyden, a famous Dutch merchant living in London. He drafted in Dutch engineers from Holland to drain the land against stiff opposition from the local's. For Vermuyden's part he was given one third of the improved lands, the King and the commoners had the remainder. Today Hatfield is a busy village with a mix of old and new houses, and still has a good community spirit.

A couple of miles from Hatfield is the hamlet of Sandtoft where the locals were up in arms about the drainage as it took away the livelihoods they had always known. There were quite a few battles with the locals. The incomers were not all Dutch, they were also Huguenots and Walloons who were Protestants fleeing persecution from the Catholics in France and Belgium. As well as a colony in Sandtoft they also had one in Thorney in Cambridgeshire and they were also living in London and Kent.

In the mid 1600‘s a chapel was built for the Huguenots and the Dutch. Among the names in the chapel register  were many names still heard around here today including Smaque, Jaques, Tindall, Brunyee, also one of the families were called Lelew  who were French Huguenots. They were my husband’s ancestors through his Great Grandma Emily Dunderdale. The Lelew ’s married into the Dunderdale family in 1752 .

Read all about the Squatters Camp at Sandtoft after the second world war