About Lawford
LAWFORD: a village with nearly everything - housing, schools, industry, the countryside on its doorstep plus a mainline railway station, enabling visits to places of evening entertainment further away and still be able to get home late at night.
Thought originally to be Hall Ford, Lawford is to the west of Manningtree and bounded by the river Stour. It comes partly within the Dedham Vale, so from some vantage points in the parish there are fine views across Constable country.
King Harold before the Conquest held Lawford Hall and the D'Arcy and Waldegrave families subsequently owned it. It and Dale Hall owned most of the parish between them.
Lawford Hall was rebuilt in 1583 by Edward Waldegrave and was largely refurbished in the 18th century when a brick front was added. The hall, with its avenue of limes, adjacent church rectories and cottages, forms a very pleasant picture at the end of a lane, looking across the Stour. Externally, the house itself looks Georgian but behind the front of 1756 are Elizabethan walls, gabled wings, original chimney stacks and turreted stair turrets.
Although Lawford has possessed a church since Norman times, the present building is largely of 14th and later centuries. The chancel, which dates from 1340, is one of the best examples of Gothic work in Essex and is an ornated piece of decorated architecture. The windows are richly traceried and the carving on the sedilla, piscine and buttresses is flamboyant.
In the 19th century careful restoration took place and this included the unblocking of the very fine east window, which had until then been covered with wood. The massive tower was added in the 17th century. Of interest too, is a mass clock and some 600-year-old carvings in the chancel of birds, animals, flowers and country dancers. The hall was added in 1991.
Dale Hall, near Manningtree railway station, which is actually in Lawford, is the oldest house in the village. It was said to have been the place of execution of one of the men who burnt the Holy Rood of Dovercourt in the 16th century.
Like Shirburn Mill and the village itself, it is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The mill is thought to have had a Roman predecessor.
Since 1950 a great deal of housing development has taken place in the parish, including 620 homes on Lawford Dale while Honeycroft provides single room flats for the elderly.
The village has two primary schools and Manningtree High School, a well equipped Sports Hall, and a 14-acre recreation ground in School Lane, the base for senior and junior football clubs plus children's play equipment and two hard tennis courts. There are also play areas at Waldegrave Way and Riverview.
Ogilvie Hall in Wignall Street and the Scout Group's Venture Centre in Bromley Road are both available for meetings and social functions.
The Lawford industrial estate off Station Road houses a variety of businesses, some retail. Among the latter are takeaways, skip hire and animal feeds. The village's recycling centre is in Greensmill off Riverside Avenue West.
Going towards Suffolk are the Cattawade marshes, much of which is in Lawford. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds now owns part of the land and various bird watching and nature-based events are held there.
