Manningtree

Manningtree has traditionally claimed to be the smallest town in England, but its 2007 population of 700 people in 20 hectares{{cite web | url=http://archive.echo-news.co.uk/2007/11/7/262780.html | title=Essex: Town is happy to be small wonder | publisher=Echo Newspapers | date=7 November 2007 | access-date=2010-09-24}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}} and the 2011 census population for the civil parish of 900 are much higher than the 351 population of Fordwich, Kent.{{cite web | url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=795410&c=Fordwich&d=16&e=15&g=457433&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1285290383900&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612140711/http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=795410&c=Fordwich&d=16&e=15&g=457433&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1285290383900&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779 | url-status=dead | archive-date=12 June 2011 | publisher=National Statistics | title=Area: Fordwich CP (Parish) | date=28 April 2004 | access-date=2010-09-24}} However, it is believed to be the smallest town by area.{{cite web |url=https://www.manningtreetowncouncil.gov.uk/manningtree|publisher=VCS Parish Council Websites|title=About Manningtree - Manningtree Town Council|accessdate=2024-01-13 }}

In April 2009 it was proposed that Manningtree should merge with Mistley and Lawford to form a single parish, losing its separate identity as a town.{{Cite journal|url=http://www.harwichandmanningtreestandard.co.uk/news/localnews/4299842.Manningtree__Threat_to_Mayor/ |title=Manningtree: Threat to Mayor |date=17 April 2009 |first=Andrea |last=Collitt |journal=Harwich and Manningtree Standard | url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004163753/http://www.harwichandmanningtreestandard.co.uk/news/localnews/4299842.Manningtree__Threat_to_Mayor/ |archive-date=4 October 2011 }} As of 2023 such a merger has not occurred.

File:Manningtree Library.JPG]]

The name Manningtree is thought to derive from 'many trees'.{{cite news|title=Once upon a time in... Manningtree|last=Peers|first=Deborah|date=February 2009|work=Essex Life|publisher=Archant Life|pages=52}}

The town grew around the 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, 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 Manningtree 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 Methodist church located on South Street, completed in 1807.{{NHLE|desc=Methodist Church|num=1240124|access-date=23 July 2023}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.dedham-and-ardleigh-parishes.org.uk/Articles/497050/The_Ascension.aspx|title=The Ascension By John Constable RA (1776–1837)|publisher=Dedham and Ardleigh Parishes|access-date=23 July 2023}}

Manningtree is part of the electoral ward called Lawford, Manningtree and Mistley.{{cite web |url=https://www.tendringdc.gov.uk/content/district-council-wards-and-boundaries|title=District Council wards and boundaries|accessdate=2025-01-15 }} The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 4,603.{{cite web|url=http://www.ukcensusdata.com/manningtree-mistley-little-bentley-and-tendring-e05004248#sthash.O93kjLlJ.dpbs|title=Manningtree,Mistrey, Little Bentley and Tendring ward population 2011|access-date=25 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926004550/http://www.ukcensusdata.com/manningtree-mistley-little-bentley-and-tendring-e05004248#sthash.O93kjLlJ.dpbs|archive-date=26 September 2015|url-status=dead}}

File:cmglee_Manningtree_River_Stour.jpg

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, Mistley, Lawford, Wrabness and Brantham.

File:Manningtree Station.jpg]]

Manningtree railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line and provides regular, direct services to London, Norwich and Harwich. The station is actually located in the Parish of Lawford.

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Television signals are received from the Sudbury TV transmitter. {{cite web | url=https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Sudbury | title=Sudbury (Suffolk, England) Full Freeview transmitter | date=May 2004 }}

The town is served by both BBC Essex and BBC Radio Suffolk. Other radio stations including Heart East, Greatest Hits Radio Essex, and Actual Radio.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard is the town's local newspaper which publishes on Fridays. {{cite web|url=https://www.britishpapers.co.uk/england-eang/harwich-standard/|title=Harwich and Manningtree Standard|date=3 May 2014|website=British Papers|accessdate=3 November 2023}}

Manningtree features in Ronald Bassett'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“.{{Cite web|title=Famous Quotes {{!}} Henry IV Part I {{!}} Royal Shakespeare Company|url=https://www.rsc.org.uk/henry-iv-part-i/about-the-play/famous-quotes|access-date=2021-11-17|website=www.rsc.org.uk}} This was marked in 2000 with a sculpture of an ox in the town centre.{{Cite web|title=Shakespeare's Manningtree to celebrate bard's anniversary|url=https://www.harwichandmanningtreestandard.co.uk/news/14351609.shakespeares-manningtree-to-celebrate-bards-anniversary/|access-date=2021-11-17|website=Harwich and Manningtree Standard|language=en}}

A. K. Blakemore's 2021 novel, The Manningtree Witches, is set in the town.{{Cite web |last=O’Donnell |first=Paraic |date=2021-03-12 |title=The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore review – a darkly witty debut |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/12/the-manningtree-witches-by-ak-blakemore-review-a-darkly-witty-debut |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} The novel won the Desmond Elliott Prize 2021, being described by the judges as "a stunning achievement."{{Cite web |last=McKenna |first=Steph |title=The Desmond Elliott Prize 2021 |url=https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/dep-2021/ |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=National Centre for Writing}}

• Margaret Thatcher lived and worked in Manningtree and worked for BX Plastics{{Cite book|last=Lewis|first=Russell|title=Margaret Thatcher: a personal and political biography|pages=16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ypg9AAAAIAAJ&q=margaret%20thatcher%20manningtree&pg=PA16|publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul|year=1975|isbn=0-7100-8283-5}}
• Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled Witch-Finder General, lived in Manningtree
• Henry Patten, the 2024 Gentlemen's Wimbledon doubles champion lived in Manningtree.

Manningtree is twinned with Frankenberg, Hesse, Germany.

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• [https://www.manningtreetowncouncil.gov.uk Manningtree Town Council website]

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Category:Towns in Essex

Category:Civil parishes in Essex

Category:Tendring

Category:Populated coastal places in Essex