Manea Colony and Vandervell's/Colony Lake

Comments on the community at Manea, by George Holyoake

at:


George Jacob Holyoake was a noted & very prolific Victorian writer on co-operative matters. These extracts are from his "The History of Co-operation in England, Vol 1"
published in London by T. Fisher Unwin 1875, revised 1906.

These are edited extracts from a scanned version which may have textual errors due to optical recognition software; however the spelling of Hodson's name incorrectly as "Hodgson" is the author's error.

This account shows William Hodson in a rather different light to the other writers whose papers are reproduced on this site


From page 148:
In October 1839 a more ambitious journal appeared, entitled the Working Bee, "printed by John Green, at the Community Press, Manea Fen, Cambridgeshire, for the Trustees of the Hodgsonian Community Societies." It took the usual honest and determined motto "He who will not work neither shall he eat" but it turned out that those who did work did not get the means of eating, there being no adequate provision made for this at Manea Fen.


From pages 182-185:
Yielding to a necessity always adverse, experiments were next attempted in the fens of Cambridgeshire. The projector, Mr. Hodgson, was a handsome and lusty farmer, who heard from clerical adversaries that a community might serve harem as well as public purposes ; and as he had some land, a little money, and plausibility of address, he turned out as a peripatetic orator in favour of beginning the new world in his native fens of Cambridgeshire. No one suspected his object, he was regarded as an eager advocate for realising the new system of society. Mr. Owen at once set his face against the ingenious schemer, whose hasty and indefinite proceedings he disapproved. Mr. Owen's high-minded instincts always led him to associate only with men of honour and good promise. He went down to Manea Fen, the name of the site chosen, and, having acquaintance with landowners of the neighbour hood, was soon able to properly estimate the qualifications of the new communist leader. Some gentlemen farmers, who knew Hodgson's antecedents and unfitness for trust, did Mr. Owen the service of telling him the truth. Mr. Fleming, the editor of the New Moral World wisely declined, on business grounds, to sanction the Manea Fen project. It did not add to the repute of the scheme that Mr. Rowbotham, afterwards known as " Parallox," made himself the advocate of the discountenanced projector. Many honest, and some able, men, naturally thinking that the discontent with Mr. Hodgson's plans originated in narrowness, and impatient to try their fortunes on the land themselves, went down and endeavoured to put the place in working order. Buildings were erected and many residents were for a time established there ; but the chief of the affair soon found that he had misconceived the character of those whom he had attracted, and they soon abandoned it. Those who had the smallest means suffered most, because they remained the longest, being unable to transfer themselves. The Working Bee, the organ of the association, edited by Mr. James Thompson, had animation, literary merit, and the advantage of appealing to all who were impatient of delay, and not well instructed in the dangers of prematurity. It was in August, 1838, that Mr. E. T. Craig made the first announcement that Mr. Hodgson, who had the suspicious address of Brimstone Hill, Upwell, [Peter Cox’s note: Brimstone Hill was the previous name of the village of Christchurch, in the parish of Upwell, where there was a Methodist Chapel] had an estate of two hundred acres within a few miles of Wisbech, which he intended to devote to a community. Mr. Hodgson addressed the readers of the Moral World as "Fellow Beings," the only time in which that abstract designation was applied to them. The editor prudently prefaced his remarks upon the communications by quoting the saying of the Town Clerk of Ephesus, "Let us do nothing rashly" Mr. William Hodgson had been a sailor in his younger days and many things else subsequently. He was acting in the character of the farmer when he invented the Manea Fen community. It was mortgaged, but this did not prevent him offering to sell it to the Socialist party. This Fen Farm consisted of four fifty-acre lots, divided by dykes, as is the Fen country plan. The dykes acted as drains also. Three fifties lay together, the fourth was somewhat distant at half a mile. Twenty-four cottages, twelve in a row built back to back, were single-room shanties. There was a dining shanty, which would accommodate one hundred people. There were brave, energetic men attracted to this place. To set up a paper, which was one of the features of the Fen Farm, was to enter the ranks of aspiring cities. The members were " working bees " in the best sense, and were capable of success anywhere if moderate industry and patience could command it. Besides being disastrous to individuals, this Fen community was a hindrance to the greater scheme of the Queenwood community, which had then been projected, and which represented what of unity, wisdom, and capacity the Socialist party had.

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introduction
 
 
 
other pages
Home & introduction
Slide show
The Fenland Ark, the floating church
 
Academic studies
Manea Society, by Enid Porter
Hodsonian Community, Dennis Hardy
Hodsonian Community, Evelyn Lord

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related pages on other websites
The Colony
page created 2006 if you can add to or correct this text, please contact me: peter.cox@whitehallfarmhouse.fsnet.co.uk last updated: 05 August 2011