Manea, Cambridgeshire

Stonea Camp, an Iron Age hill fort is located approximately 1 mile west of the village.

Manea was once a hamlet in the parish of Coveney, and in the seventeenth century was one of the sites where Charles I planned to build a new town, to be called Charlemont.[3] The village's parish church is dedicated to St Nicholas and was built in 1875 to replace an earlier building dating from 1791.[4] The village's brass band, the Manea Silver Band, was formed in 1882; it meets at Manea Methodist Chapel.[5]

The Manea Colony was set up in the 1830s at Manea Fen as an experimental Utopian community but failed after a couple of years. The colony produced a newspaper The Working Bee on their own press.[6] On 16 February 1841 Mr William Dodson published a notice stating that ‘The Late Friendly Society, called ‘Manea Fen Colony’ has been legally dissolved’ in the Cambridge Chronicle of 20 February 1841.

The Leicester Mercury on 24 April 1841 published details of a trial at Isle of Ely Quarter Sessions of 7 April. William Hodson was fined £10 and Thomas Golding £1 for having on 13 February assaulted Maria Ward, a candidate for admission to the Colony.[7]

William Hodson emigrated and died on 18 April 1880 at Janesville, Wisconsin, USA.[8] In June 1904 a smallholding in the Colony, comprising 32a. 0r 15p. With 5a. 3r. 24p. Of fishing pits, occupied by Mr. Thos. Rolfe, was knocked down to Mr SH Farmington, of March for £1240. The Colony Farm 114a. 3r. 35p. with House, cottages, barn, and other farm-buildings, occupied by Mr. Samuel Dunhour, was withdrawn at £4020. Mr.FJ Wise was solicitor to the vendors (the trustees of the late Mrs. MA Wise).[9]

During September and October 2016 the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) followed up geophysics surveys by Fenland Archaeological Society (FenArch) and conducted fieldwork as part of a HLF-funded project.[10]

• Media related to Manea at Wikimedia Commons
• Manea Parish Council