- Mistley
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Coordinates: 51°56′38″N 1°04′52″E / 51.944°N 1.081°E
Mistley 
Mistley towers
Mistley
Mistley shown within EssexOS grid reference TM117318 District Tendring Shire county Essex Region East Country England Sovereign state United Kingdom Post town Manningtree Postcode district CO11 Dialling code 01206 Police Essex Fire Essex Ambulance East of England EU Parliament East of England List of places: UK • England • Essex Mistley is a large village and civil parish in the Tendring district of northeast Essex. It is around 11 miles northeast of Colchester and is east of, and almost contiguous with, Manningtree. The parish consists of Mistley and New Mistley, both lying beside the Stour Estuary, and Mistley Heath a kilometre to the south. It is served by Mistley railway station on the Mayflower Line.
In a somewhat contradictory fashion, the map openly marks a Secret Bunker. This was built in 1951 as one of five Cold War control rooms in Essex. It was open as a museum for a few years but closed in 2002[1].
Mistley is the village where Mathew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General, was most active[citation needed]. He stayed in the Thorn Hotel, on Mistley High Street.
The village is home to Mistley Cricket Club, which plays its home games in New Road, next to the church. Both Mistley Football and Rugby clubs play at Furze Hill.
Mistley Quay
The first quay was built around 1720[2] and trade went on from that quay up to Sudbury. Around about 1770 the quay was enlarged, presumably by Richard Rigby and was known as Alan's Quay.
When the young French aristocrat Francois de La Rochefoucauld visited Mistley in 1784 he remarked[3] on the trade of the port which he said was ‘created entirely by Mr Rigby’. His tutor and companion, Maximilien de Lazowski, was more precise in his comments[4], saying that ‘Newcastle ships bring coal which is either distributed by cart into Essex or Suffolk or carried on upriver by barge to Sudbury. The whole neighbourhood brings its corn here to be embarked or stored for the London markets and all the coastal ports. There are six ships at the quay – a fine sight.’,[5]
Now the quay sees around three ships a week arrive and go.
On 17 September 2008, amid chaotic scences of public protest, a 2-metre high, 130-metre long fence was erected across the public quay. It is designed to block access to and from the River Stour and ends 500 years of free access to the water[6].
References
- ^ http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/m/mistley/
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/content/articles/2008/09/12/mistley_quay_feature.shtml
- ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frenchmans-Year-Suffolk-Records-Society/dp/0851155081
- ^ http://books.google.com/books/about/To_the_highlands_in_1786.html?id=By6-nfxBg-IC
- ^ http://www.visit-manningtree.co.uk/history/1700.html
- ^ http://www.freethequay.org/
External links
Media related to Mistley at Wikimedia CommonsCategories:- Villages in Essex
- Tendring
- Essex geography stubs
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