 The first official documentation of the village was in the early 17th century, although historians have been unable to elucidate the exact roots of the name.Local folklore suggested that the name came from the fact that an elderly woman (a "hag") from the village was known to sit on a five-barred gate and watch the world.However, it is now believed that the name is more likely to have been derived from two words – "hack", meaning a hawthorn tree and "gate", an archaic word for a path or route.