England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Manningtree St Michael & All Angels

The Parish

The parish of Manningtree lies in the extreme northeast of Essex forming a stretch of the intricate coastline, here with the Stour Eatuary, and also a small stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Essex. Manningtree is located roughly 9 miles northeast of the town of Colchester and stands immediately east of the A137 road which links Colchester with Ipswich. Manningtree is a market town and small port standing on the southern banks of the Stour, the original town & entire parish only covered 22 acres but by the 19th century it had spilled over and eventually engulfed the neighbouring parishes of Lawford & Mistley. Today's Manningtree stretches from the A137 and its railway station eastwards for 3/4s of a mile before a short gap to Mistley, it has also spread southwards as far as the B1352 which heads through to Harwich. Through the early medieval period the channel of the Stour permitted only small vessels drawing less than 6 feet except on spring tides limiting its size and scope as a port, in 1706 the Stour was improved and made navigable up to Sudbury which increased Manningtree's hinterland for the export and coastal shipment of agricultural produce, it also imported corn, coal and timber from the near continent. The estuary of the Stour would also have provided with fish and shellfish. The main economy beyond those focussed on the Stour was a regional market and centre for specialist skills. In the later years some industry developed in matters typical of rural areas, malting & brewing being particularly important. The completion of the twin super-ports of Felixstowe and Harwich have almost totally removed the trade from the port, it being more common to see sailing yachts than coasters. Modern developments have arrived in the form of the East Anglian rail link to London which skims the west of Lawford granting Manningtree a station, a further line extends from Manningtree to Harwich serving both the freight ports and ferries to the Netherlands. As a coastal town there are numerous outlets to the Stour Estuary, to the east these are responsible for the leaving of a gap to Mistley. Manningtree is sited between sea level and 30 metres above it with land rising gently to approach but not breach the 40 metres contour in generally flattish terrain. As already mentioned the original parish covered just 22 acres but by the end of this transcript period around 1,250 parishioners would have been supported. Manningtree is not mentioned in Domesday Book but the manor Old Hall, held by the Countess Adelaide of Aumale was within the area and offered 3 ploughs plus small meadows, pastures and scraps of woodland.

The Church

In a great loss to the town St Michael & All Angels church was demolished in 1967 to make way for a housing development. As Pevsner states it was an act of civic vandalism that would probably not have been tolerated today. The church stood on the southern side of the High Street roughly midway between the junction with South Street and with that of Stour Street, a fragment of the church's western wall remains adjacent to Studio 42. Pevsner claims a date of 1616 for the church and from documents identifies restorations from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Early gazetteers carry a little more detail describing the church as having "a nave, with north and south aisles separated from the nave by ranges of massive pillars". A short search has not located any adequate imagery despite the recent demolition, perhaps others will find such resources documenting this loss.