Manea Colony Farm 1951 ©MusCamb

Colony Farm, Manea

History of the Manea Society

This is the approximate location of the Manea Society, an experiment in social living set up in 1838 by William Hodson of Upwell. It lasted until 1844.

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One of the original directors of the Manea Society was Edmund Wastney. SW sent this note in 2025:

He was my grandfathers, grandfathers, grandfather. Before Manea Fen he had been imprisoned in Newcastle Gaol for selling unstamped newspapers. Afterwards (Manea Fen) he emigrated to New Zealand on the first settler boat for Nelson (with Arthur Wakefield). He first set up a carpentry business with his friend Doughty (also one of the directors at Manea Fen Colony). Their families were to follow them to New Zealand, but Doughty’s wife never left – and they never found out what happened to her– and Doughty remained in the Wastney household as if a family member. Edmund went onto to become involved in Provincial politics here in NZ. 

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See W H G Armytage, Heavens Below, Utopian Experiments in England 1560 – 1960 (1961) pp145ff ‘Manea Fen and Tytherly’.

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Enid Porter’s article on the Manea Society can be found here:

The Manea Society

The Manea Colony, Enid Porter notes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manea,_Cambridgeshire

http://www.ousewashes.info/places/colony/colony-at-manea-fen.htm?LMCL=HP62CN