St. Michael and All Saints Church, Manningtree (EHER 3231)

Site of church built de novo circa 1616 replacing a former chapel-of-ease on a different site. Alterations were made in the 19th century. The church was demolished in around 1970.

Excavation, 1974 The church was demolished in around 1970. Trial trenching revealed only the foundations and associated post medieval graves. No sign of a medieval chapel-at-ease, thought to have been on the site, was discovered. <1> <2> It is not entirely clear whether there were one or two chapels in Manningtree in the medieval period (see also PRN 3232). In 1616 the Chapel of St Michael and All Angels in Manningtree was built as a chapel-of-ease of St Mary's parish church in Mistley. Morant (1768) recorded that this chapel, which stood between High Street and Stour Street, was 'built out of the ruins of the ancienter chapel, that stood on rising ground, not far from the site of the new church'. It has been suggested that this reference refers to an earlier Chapel of St Michael and All Angels, possibly located between South Street and York Street <2> on the southern limit of the medieval town. Rodwell noted the reuse of septaria rubble in the construction of the seventeenth-century chapel and the presence of reused fragments of dressed stone including late medieval mouldings in a nineteenth-century wall on the north side of York Street which probably derive from the medieval chapel. However there is also a second contender for Morant's 'ancienter chapel', the Holy Trinity Guild Chapel (PRN 3232). <7> The Chapel of St Michael and All Angels was moved to the High Street in the seventeenth century. The west wall and the north aisle of St Michael and All Angels dated from 1616, as did the unusual variation of hammerbeam roof <9>. However the majority of the structure dated to 1839 when the chancel was added. The chapel was demolished around 1970. Excavation of the site <2> confirmed the seventeenth century date and uncovered numerous post-medieval graves and the foundations of a brick-built house, adjoining the church and contemporary with it. Rescue excavation in the Vicarage garden (47, High Street) on the opposite side of the road to the chapel revealed a number of late post-medieval burials; these were in a good state of preservation, partially due to waterlogging of the ground <8>. This land had been granted to the people of Manningtree as a curate's residence and graveyard by Richard Edwards in 1633. <7> Information from NRHE St Michael's Church. A brick church built de novo in around 1616 replacing a former chapel-of-ease to Mistley. The chapel was apparently on a different site. The church originally comprised a Nave and N and S aisles. In the 19th century the S aisle was rebuilt and a chancel added. The church was declared unsafe in 1966 and later demolished. Excavations in 1974 proved largely negative and little of archaeological interest had survived terracing and other disturbances. <10> Excavation Report. <2> Listed by RCHME. <3> Additional reference. <11> <12> <13>