Manningtree is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Tendring Tendring is a village and civil parish in Essex. It gives its name to the Tendring District and before that the Tendring Hundred. Its name was given to the larger groupings because it was at the centre, not because it was larger than the other ...

district of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, England, which lies on the River Stour. It is part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Natural Beauty.

Smallest town claim

Manningtree has traditionally claimed to be the smallest town in England, but its 2007 population of 700 people in 20 hectares and the 2011 census population for the civil parish of 900 are much higher than the 351 population of

Fordwich Fordwich is a market town and a civil parish in east Kent, England, on the River Stour, northeast of Canterbury. It is the smallest community by population in Britain with a town council. Its population increased by 30 between 2001 and 2011. ...

, Kent. However, it is believed to be the smallest town by area. In April 2009 it was proposed that Manningtree should merge with Mistley and

Lawford Lawford is a large village and civil parish in the Tendring district of northeast Essex, England. It is approximately northeast from the centre of Colchester and west of, and contiguous with, Manningtree. Mistley merges with the east side of M ...

to form a single parish, losing its separate identity as a town. As of 2018 such a merger has not occurred.

History

The name Manningtree is thought to derive from 'many trees'. The town grew around the

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

trade from the 15th century until its decline in the 18th century and also had a thriving shipping trade in corn, timber and coal until this declined with the coming of the railway. Manningtree is known as the centre of the activities of

Matthew Hopkins Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament, a ...

, the self-appointed Witchfinder General, who claimed to have overheard local women discussing their meetings with the devil in 1644 with his accusations leading to their execution as witches. Many of the buildings in the centre of the town have Georgian facades which obscure their earlier origins. Notable buildings include the town's library, which was originally built as 'a public hall for the purposes of corn exchange' and was later used around 1900 for public entertainment, and the oldest

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

church in Essex, located on South Street. ''The Ascension'', by John Constable, which now hangs in Dedham church, was commissioned in 1821 for the altarpiece of the early seventeenth century church on the High Street, demolished in 1967.

Governance

Manningtree is part of the electoral ward called Manningtree, Mistley, Little Bentley and Tendring. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 4,603.

Geography

Manningtree is on Holbrook Bay, part of the River Stour in the north of Essex. It is the eastern edge of

Dedham Vale Dedham Vale is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the Essex-Suffolk border in east England. It comprises the area around the River Stour between Manningtree and Smallbridge Farm, 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Bures, including the ...

. Nearby villages include Dedham, Mistley,

, Wrabness and

Brantham Brantham is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. It is located close to the River Stour and the border with Essex, around north of Manningtree, and around southwest of Ipswich. History The name Brantham i ...

Transport

Manningtree railway station Manningtree railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) in the East of England, serving the town of Manningtree, Essex. It is down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between to the west and to the east. The ...

is on the Great Eastern Main Line and provides regular, direct services to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

and Harwich.

In fiction

Manningtree features in Ronald Bassett's 1966 novel ''

Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament, a ...

'' and in A.K. Blakemore's 2021 novel ''The Manningtree Witches''. In Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I (Act 2 Scene 4), Flastaff is referred to as “that roasted Manningtree ox“. This was marked in 2000 with a sculpture of an ox in the town centre. A.K. Blakemore's 2021 novel, ''The Manningtree Witches'', is set in the town. The novel won the

Desmond Elliott Prize The Desmond Elliott Prize is an annual award for the best debut novel written in English and published in the UK. The winning novel can be from any genre of fiction and must exhibit depth and breadth with a compelling narrative. The winner receiv ...

2021, being described by the judges as "a stunning achievement."

Notable people

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

lived in Manningtree and worked for

BX Plastics BX Plastics was a plastics engineering and production company. The company was one of three subsidiaries of the British Xylonite Company established by 1938. BX Plastics made xylonite (also known as celluloid or ivoride) and Lactoid (also known ...

, the self-styled Witch-Finder General, lived in Manningtree

Twin town

Frankenberg, Hesse Frankenberg an der Eder is a town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district, Hesse, Germany. The mountain at a Ford (crossing), ford over the Eder (Fulda), Eder north of the Burgwald range was for a long time a fortified place, playing an especially importa ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

References

External links

Manningtree Town Council website
{{authority control Towns in Essex Civil parishes in Essex Tendring Populated coastal places in Essex