Mistley | |
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Mistley towers |
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Mistley shown within Essex | |
Population | 2,685 (Including Horsley Cross. 2011) |
OS grid reference | TM117318 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Manningtree |
Postcode district | CO11 1 |
Dialling code | 01206 |
Police | Essex |
Fire | Essex |
Ambulance | East of England |
EU Parliament | East of England |
Mistley is a large village and civil parish in the Tendring district of northeast Essex, England. 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. Mistley railway station serves Mistley on the Mayflower Line.
Mistley is the location of one of five Cold War control rooms in Essex. Built in 1951, it was opened as a museum called the Secret Bunker in 1996 but closed in 2002.
A Roman road leading from Mistley to the nearby provincial capital of Roman Britain at Camulodunum (modern Colchester) has led to the suggestion that there may have been a port in the vicinity of the modern village which served the town in the Roman period.
Mistley is the village where Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General, was reputed to have lived, according to legend owning the Mistley Inn. He was buried a few hours after his death in the graveyard of the Church of St Mary.? From 1920–22 Rev Frank Buttle was rector of Mistley with Bradfield.
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.
The first quay was built around 1720 and trade went on from that quay up to Sudbury. Around about 1770, the quay was enlarged by Richard Rigby and was known as Port of Mistley. Small-scale shipbuilding took place here, and a number of smaller warships were built for the Royal Navy at Mistleythorn during the 18th century.
At that time, the village of Mistley, then known as Mistleythorn, consisted of warehouses, a granary, a large malting office and new quays. There was also a medieval church, only the porch of which survives, and a new church that Rigby's father had built to the north of the village in 1735. When Rigby hatched a scheme to turn Mistley into a fashionable spa this plain, rectangular brick building was not in keeping with his grand plans. Rigby originally called in Robert Adam to design a saltwater bath by the river, but this plan was never carried out and instead the architect was put to work on the church in around 1776.