Editing Manningtree (section)

==History==
[[File:Manningtree Library.JPG|thumb|left|[[Corn Exchange, Manningtree|Manningtree Library]]]]
The name Manningtree is thought to derive from 'many trees'.<ref name="Feb09">{{cite news|title=Once upon a time in... Manningtree|last=Peers|first=Deborah|date=February 2009|work=Essex Life|publisher=Archant Life|pages=52}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Feb09" /> 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.<ref name="Feb09" />

Many of the buildings in the centre of the town have Georgian facades which obscure their earlier origins. Notable buildings include [[Corn Exchange, Manningtree|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,<ref name="Feb09" /> and the [[Methodist]] church located on South Street, completed in 1807.<ref>{{NHLE|desc=Methodist Church|num=1240124|access-date=23 July 2023}}</ref>

''The Ascension'', by [[John Constable]], which now hangs in [[Dedham, Essex|Dedham]] church, was commissioned in 1821 for the altarpiece of the early seventeenth-century church on the High Street, demolished in 1967.<ref>{{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}}</ref>