Dedham Vale Society Winter 2007 No 61

Well, when I first joined in 1950 which was the time of the Korean War, he said to me“Young man. I just think I ought to let you know that there are things that go on here thatare not in the book. You will see that the boys use binoculars on things that they shouldn’tuse them on”. These old devils were spying on some poor, unfortunate woman who lived ona houseboat down at Brantham and she used to sunbathe on the far side, the river side, whereshe thought she wouldn’t be seen!DVS member Maureen Cleave has interviewed David Cleveland, film maker, author andfounder of the East Anglian Film Archive, who lives in ManningtreeMISTLEY, MANNINGTREE AND DAVID CLEVELANDDavid Cleveland, the film maker, and his wife Christine came to live in Manningtreebecause they had a boat and they liked the look of the estuary from the train. Their house is350 years old, one of the oldest in the High Street. As MP for Harwich, Samuel Pepyswould have gone past their front door quite often. You can still see the gas points for thelighting on the ceiling of the sitting room.Next door lived first Dr. Bree and then Dr. Beckett and then Dr. Kelly, their cellars said tobe mysteriously linked for smuggling purposes. When heavy traffic used to lumber past,it would shake the pictures off the wall. David earned £12 a week working for the BBC inEaling Studios and he paid £5 a week rent. They didn’t mean to stay long in Manningtree.But in l971 they bought the house for £3,000 and, thirty six years later and with three grown-updaughters, they’re still here. Christine worked in Manningtree Library and David, tall, withsnow white hair and brown eyes that miss nothing, is a familiar figure about the place. He isjust the person to write its history. He has called his book Manningtree and Mistley, thePeople, the Trades and the Industries.There was so much I didn’t know before I read his book. I didn’t know that Mistley stretchesto Horsley Cross and is much bigger than Manningtree; that its name probably comes fromMistley in the nineteen seventies when trains still used the quay(This photo appears in the book)20