Manningtree, Essex

Historical Description

Manningtree, a small town and a parish in Essex. The town stands on the southern bank of the navigable river Stonr, at the boundary with Suffolk, adjacent to the junction of the two lines of the G.E.R. toward Ipswich and Harwich, 8½ miles NE of Colchester, 10 S from Ipswich, and 59½ from London; extends partly into the parishes of Mistley and Law-ford, and was known at Domesday as Sciddinchon. It has a station on the G.E.R., and a head post office; is irregularly built, yet contains some good houses; carries on a considerable trade in brewing, mailing, and the sale of corn and timber; had formerly a considerable shipping trade, which declined in consequence of greater facility of transit afforded by railway. There is a weekly market and a fair on Whit Tuesday. It is still a considerable centre for country traffic, and has two hanks, some good inns, and a public hall, originally erected for a corn exchange in 1865, but which was purchased in 1889 by a private company, and is now used for public meetings and entertainments. The church, a building of brick chiefly in the Late Perpendicular style, was built in 1616, and enlarged in 1839; it contains a monument to Thomas Osmond, who suffered martyrdom in the town in 1515, and a memorial of Thomas Tusser of 1580. The reading-room, built in 1849, is in the Tudor style, and has a library of above 1000 volumes. Shakespeare speaks of a "roasted Manningtree ox with a pudding in its pouch;" and the author of " Hudibras " alludes to a witch-finder, M. Hopkins, who lived in Manningtree. Acreage of parish, 22; population, 904. The manor belonged to Adeliza, the half-sister of William the Conqueror, was afterwards given to Canon Leigh Nunnery, passed to the Eainsworths, and belongs now to the trustees of the late T. G. Kensit, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £158 with residence. There are also Congregational and Wesleyan chapels. The parish council has seven members.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Manningtree from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Manningtree (St. Michael))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Essex is available to browse.

The Essex pages from the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 is online.

Maps

Online maps of Manningtree are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Essex online:

• Chelmsford Chronicle
• Essex Newsman
• Essex Standard