HATFIELD-BROAD-OAK, a market-town of the county of Essex, in the hundred of Harlow, twenty-six miles from London. It receives the addition to its name from the great number of spreading oaks around it, in what was formerly a royal domain. The church is a fine old Gothic structure. The town had a market on Thursday, which has gradually decayed. The population amounted in 1801 to 1436, in 1811 to 1321, in 1821 to 1693, and in 1831 to 1825.