Hatfield Chase - Location

Location

Hatfield Chase is roughly bordered by the M18 motorway to the west, the River Ouse to the north, the River Idle to the south, and the A161 road through Epworth and the Isle of Axholme to the east. It covers an area of around 110 square miles (280 km2), including two large peat bogs known as Thorne and Hatfield Moors, and is part of the once-vast Humberhead Levels, a wetland which originally covered some 770 square miles (2,000 km2). The Chase is crossed by the River Torne, for which a new channel was cut by Vermuyden in 1628, as part of the drainage scheme implemented at that time. Further north, the two peat bogs were separated by the completion in 1802 of the Stainforth and Keadby Canal, running in an east-west direction between the two. In the 1970s, the Chase was further divided by the construction of the M180 motorway, which runs to the south of the canal but follows a similar course.

The Battle of Heathfield, fought in 633 between Penda of Mercia and Edwin of Northumbria may have occurred on Hatfield Chase, although it could also have taken place near Cuckney in Nottinghamshire, between Mansfield and Worksop, which also has places called Hatfield.