Attractions and Places To See around Boxted - Top 20

The Flatford Granary stored grain until the 19th century when flour milling became profitable. Owned by Golding Constable, it passed to his son Abram and was eventually sold to William Bentall in 1846.

One of the quintessential rural English scenes. A dead end on road, although there is an off-road route that connects to Manningtree if you don't mind some gravel riding.

From the National Trust; 'The Granary was used to store grain until it could be processed at either the water or steam mills, a function it continued to provide until the early 19th-century. By the middle of the 18th-century it was more lucrative to mill grain into flour than to full cloth. Flatford Mill was converted into a flour mill and the Granary was used to store grain and flour. Until his death in 1816, Flatford Granary formed part of Golding Constable's (John Constable's father) milling estate. The Granary then passed to Golding's younger son Abram who sold it to William Bentall in 1846.'

Manningtree has traditionally claimed to be the smallest town in England, but its 2007 population of 700 people in 20 hectares[2] and the 2011 census population for the civil parish of 900 are much higher than the 351 population of Fordwich, Kent.[3] However the settlement of Manningtree has a population of 5696.[4] In April 2009 it was proposed that Manningtree should merge with Mistley and Lawford to form a single parish, losing its separate identity as a town.[5] As of 2018 such a merger has not occurred, and the town council currently claims to be the smallest by area. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manningtree)

The square symmetrical towers are in the neoclassical style, resembling tall pavilions rather than towers, with each facade pedimented and the whole surmounted by a cupola decorated with blind windows interspersed by Ionic columns. At ground floor level two unfluted ionic columns at each corner support a decorative cornice. The columns are decorative only, and appear to serve no structural purpose. The design of the towers creates the impression that the building was once more of a miniature cathedral than a parish church. However, the main body of the church was small and occupied the (now empty) site between the two towers. It was a single storey structure with a simple hipped roof and entrance porticos at its centre. This was the part of Adam's church which was demolished in 1870. The remaining towers are Grade I listed and a scheduled monument. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistley_Towers)

One of the great churches of northern Essex, St Mary's dominates the High Street of Dedham. The church as we see it today is primarily a 15th-century rebuilding of an earlier medieval church which existed at least as early as 1322. That early church occupied the site of the current south aisle chapel, an indication of just how much smaller it was than the grand 15th-century building we see today! The door to the vestry is thought to have been the main entrance to the 14th-century church. Work on a new church was begun in 1492 and completed in 1522. The walls are rubble and flint, so common in East Anglia. The tower is knapped flint, dressed with limestone. The striking west tower, finished in 1519, is totally self-supporting and features an unusual vaulted passage. An unsubstantiated tradition is that Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, gave money for the tower to be built. Whoever paid for it, the tower is certainly striking; it stands 131 feet high and is visible for miles along the valley. (https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/essex/churches/dedham.htm)

This church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin in 1492 when the present building was begun, is not the first church to have been built upon this site. There has been a church in Dedham since at least 1322, when services were held in a smaller church on the site of the present South Aisle Chapel. The archway to the present Vicar’s vestry is thought to have been the entrance to that church.

Mistley Towers are two porticoed classical towers which stood at each end of the now-demolished Church of St Mary the Virgin, a grandiose but highly unconventional place of worship. Work commenced on the church in 1776. The Towers are now in the care of English Heritage and are free to visit. For more information, visit: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/mistley-towers.