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 o ...

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 Ceremonial counties of England, 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 Riv ...

, 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 Mistley is a large village and civil parish in the Tendring district of northeast Essex, England. It is around 11 miles northeast of Colchester and is east of, and almost contiguous with, Manningtree. The parish consists of Mistley and New Mi ...

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 John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, th ...

, 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 A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to ...

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. Nearby villages include Dedham,

Wrabness Wrabness is a small village and civil parish near Manningtree, Essex, England. The village is located six miles (10 km) west of Harwich. Wrabness railway station is served by trains on the Mayflower Line. Wrabness had a population of app ...

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 th ...

is on the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and the ...

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 Episcopal see, See of ...

and

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring District, Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-w ...

In fiction

Manningtree features in

Ronald Bassett Ronald Leslie Bassett DSM (10 April 1924 – March 1996) was a British writer and novelist. He wrote numerous works of historical fiction, sometimes under the pseudonym of "William Clive".Atkinson, Frank (1987) ''Dictionary of Literary Pseu ...

's 1966 novel '' Witchfinder General'' 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 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 a ...

, 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 betwee ...

References

External links

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