Place Name
A corruption of the name Manston, a town in Kent, approximately 3 1/2 miles from Quex Park. It was named by the Powell-Cotton family whose estate Quex Park is in Birchington-on-Sea, in northeast Kent. This road was originally on land of Shoot Up Hill Farm, which John Powell, a secretary to George III and onetime Paymaster General, bought as in investment in 1773. Both this and his other estate Kilburn Wood Farm were passed down through the family. Once the railways lines in the Kilburn area were established, the land began to be sold for housing. All the roads were named after places local to the family’s property at Quex Park, and later after places Major Powell-Cotton visited on his travels – particularly Abyssinia (Ethiopia) between 1899 – 1900. The village was originally Mannestone which means the farm on top of a hill (a possible alternative variation is a farm belonging to a farmer called Mann) and was recorded in 1254 as Manneston, but obtained its modern spelling in 1381.
