Manifold Wick Farm,Tolleshunt Knights Essex

[essexalan]

Yes am sure he was.There is a web site called Friends Reunited and if you g on it and type in Thurstable School.There are people on there who were at that School,including me.Anyway we seem to have drifted away from Manifold Wick Farm.Don't know if you do Facebook,I am on it as Alan Charles Theobald.So if you would like to keep in touch that would be great.

[BLACKMOLLY]

Hi Dawn,

It is a very long time since we met but  my husbands mother  had spent some years with your  parents Harry and Mable during the war, at Pollyfields. Some years after the war, when David and I married we came down to see your parents with  Mary and Sid and our two children. I remember you and June but I think Ena was older.  We have a few old black and white pics which we took then. David says he also had a picture of your grandad tucked away somewhere.  Jan & David Smith

[Dawn Higgins-Brown]

Hi I remember Sid and Mary Smith also you and John. I was still at school then. I Joyce is living in Kelvedon Essex. Ena and myself are in Bristol. Unfortunately June Passed away. Great to hear from you.

[essexalan]

Hi again Dawn,Just to let you know that My cousin David from Tollesbury who you were at School with,Past away a couple of months ago,
By the way I have not been able to trace anymore info about Land Army girls working at Manifold Wick Farm.

[Lurchensfield]

Hello. I've just found your post. I'm down on the Suffolk/Essex border, researching some of my family roots.
I hope this information in some way helps.
My grandfather, John Page Thornton, owned Manifold Wick farm. At the onset of WW2, the War Agricultural Committee, commondeered the farm, on the pretext that my grandfather wouldn't be able to manage 2 farms and an editorial business in London.
It's running was handed to the Bath family from Kent.
My father also informs me that a Maurice Bath turned the farm into a golf course.
Regards, Howard Thornton.

[essexalan]

Hi Howard,Your post has only just popped up in my feed.
Yes there is a golf course further down the lane from the farm house.but the entrance is from another road.I hadn't realised that the cottages were across the field behind the farm and missed them when I went to see the farm a couple of years ago. Someone sent me a photo of them.The cottages are still there but have had major renovation done to them as I believe they were sold separately from the farm house.
Regards Alan.

[Andrew S. Hatton]

Hello. I've just found your post. I'm down on the Suffolk/Essex border, researching some of my family roots.
I hope this information in some way helps.
My grandfather, John Page Thornton, owned Manifold Wick farm. At the onset of WW2, the War Agricultural Committee, commondeered the farm, on the pretext that my grandfather wouldn't be able to manage 2 farms and an editorial business in London.
It's running was handed to the Bath family from Kent.
My father also informs me that a Maurice Bath turned the farm into a golf course.
Regards, Howard Thornton.

I have only just chanced on this thread.

I only came to Tolleshunt Knights in 1983 and ever since have had a general interest in the area - I do not recognise any of the people mentioned.

I am interested to know more about how the farm changed hands in the war and what the other business of the owner was in London.

I hope they were properly compensated - I had not realised some folk completely lost their farms in this period though I had realised there was general land management to maximise the produce that was needed locally and nationally.

In the last few years a woman originally from the other side of the district in Tiptree started a Facebook Group - Tiptree and District |History where there is information and personal recollections of the whole district going back to at least the 1940s.

Contributors here may locate folk they know of or their children and might also have valuable contributions to make - please take a look - https://www.facebook.com/groups/158167762177765

[essexalan]

Hi Andrew,I recognise your name from a couple of Facebook groups that we both have an interest in.
Thanks for the quote from the ancestor of the wartime owner of Manifold Wick Farm and yes my post was from some time ago.So was not expecting any more contacts about it.
Yes the agricultural committee took farms away from farmers that they thought wouldn't be able to manage them.Look up on TV the documentary Wartime Farm with presenters Ruth Goodman,Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn.I am not sure how the farm changed hands after the war,but I do know it is now a Golf Course.The old farm house is still there and there is a cottage down a track next to the farm over the fields.Someone did confirm that they were called Manifold Wick Cottages as this is the address given on my mothers marriage certificate as a Tractor Driver for The Womens Land Army.On a visit back to the area I have been to see where the farm was and can confirm the house is still there.Also I am a ember of the Tiptree and District  Facebook Group and did have a little feedback about the farm.

[Andrew S. Hatton]

Thanks for response, maybe others will share their knowledge of the locality over time to come, I hope so.