Clacton

Coordinates: 51°47′30″N 1°08′45″E / 51.7918°N 1.1457°E / 51.7918; 1.1457

Clacton-on-Sea
Clacton-on-Sea  Clacton-on-Sea shown within Essex
Population	53,000
OS grid reference	TM170150
District	Tendring
Shire county	Essex
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	CLACTON-ON-SEA
Postcode district	CO15 & CO16
Dialling code	01255
Police	Essex
Fire	Essex
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Harwich; Clacton (from next general election)
List of places: UK • England • Essex

Clacton-on-Sea is the largest town on the Tendring Peninsula, in Essex, England and was founded in 1871. It is a seaside resort that attracted many tourists in the 1960s and '70s, but which like other English resorts has been in decline since foreign holidays became more fashionable and affordable making it more popular as a retirement hotspot these days. It is located between Jaywick and Holland-on-sea along the coastline and Great Clacton to the north. The relevant local authority is Tendring District Council.

Clacton has a pleasure pier, arcades, a golf course, caravan parks and an airfield. The town and its beaches are still popular with tourists in the summer, and there is an annual entertainment programme including the Clacton carnival held the second Saturday in August and lasting for a week. Clacton Airshow, an aerial display takes place on the Thursday and Friday before the August Bank Holiday involving historic and modern aircraft such as the Lancaster, Spitfire, Hurricane, helicopters, Harrier, Jaguar, Tornado, wing-walkers and the Red Arrows.

Clacton-on-Sea is served by a bustling shopping area with many of the usual national chains represented and a Factory Shopping Village, in the north of the town.

Clacton-on-Sea has two theatres, the West Cliff Theatre and the Princes Theatre. The West Cliff is one of the last theatres in the country to put on an old style summer show.

History

Clacton was the site of the lower Palaeolithic Clactonian industry of flint tool manufacture^{[citation needed]}. Great Clacton was founded by the Celts in c.100BC^{[citation needed]}. There are some vague traces of Romans using the Clacton area as a seaside resort. The name Clacton dates from c.500 AD when the area was settled by Saxons. The original name, Claccingaton, means 'the village of Clacc's people'. The Domesday Book records the village as Clachintuna.

Seaside resort

The modern day Clacton-on-Sea was founded by Peter Bruff in 1871 as a seaside resort. Originally the main means of access was by sea. Ships came and docked at Clacton Pier, which now offers an amusement arcade and many other forms of entertainment. People who wanted to come by road had to go through Great Clacton. In the 1920s, London Road was built to cope with the influx of holidaymakers. Later, in the 1970s, the eastern section of the A120 was opened obviating the need for Clacton visitors to go through Colchester.

In 1937, Billy Butlin bought and refurbished the town's amusement park and later bought land beside the park. A year later on 11 June 1938, he opened the second of his holiday camps, with space for 400 holidaymakers. It was later enlarged twice with capacity for 6,000 people. The camp was built around a lake and contained the original amusement park, miniature railway, tennis courts, lawns, roller skating rink, outdoor and indoor swimming pools. Entertainment was led by Redcoats, who compered and took part in shows every night in various entertainment venues in the camp. In the 1980s, faced with competition from cheap package holidays and changing tastes, the owners Rank Group sold the holiday camp, which reopened as a short-lived theme park called Atlas Park. The land was then sold and redeveloped with housing.^[2]

Industry

Before the Industrial Revolution, Clacton's industry mainly consisted of arable farmland. As the industrial revolution spread across the country, farmers in Clacton realized that their equipment was obsolete. A steam powered mill was built in 1867 to replace the windmill, which was eventually demolished in 1918. Nowadays, the town's main industrial area is in the northeast of the town (Gorse Lane Industrial Estate and Oakwood Business Park) which contain a variety of businesses and industrial units.

Landmarks

St John's Church

St John's Church is the oldest building in Clacton. It has been suggested that smugglers may have used a tunnel from the coast to the Ship Inn to smuggle goods into the country, but this is discounted by some historians.

Clacton Pier

Clacton Pier viewed from the south west

Clacton Pier was the first building of the new resort of Clacton-on-Sea. It officially opened on 27 July 1871 and was 160 yards in length and 4 yards wide^[3]. Originally built as a landing point for goods and passengers, as Clacton was becoming an increasingly popular destination for day trippers, in 1893 the pier was lengthened to 1180ft (360m), and entertainment facilities added.^[4] Bought by Ernest Kingsman in 1922, it remained in the ownership of the Kingsman family until 1971.^[3]. In March 2009 the pier was purchased by the Clacton Pier Company, who installed a 50ft helter-skelter as a new focal point.^[5].

Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm

A 48 turbine wind farm 7 km is being constructed off the Clacton and Holland Essex coast in the Northern Thames Estuary began. The first 9 turbines were commissioned and started generating electricity in October 2009.^[6]

Climate

Demography

Clacton's population increased substantially during the 20th century from 7456 at the 1901 census, to 45,065 in 1991 and reaching over 53,000 by 2001.

Education

St Osyth's Teacher Training College occupied several buildings in Clacton, mostly along Marine Parade East, until its amalgamation with the North East Essex Technical College in the late 1970s. The town is served by three secondary schools, Clacton County High School, Colbayns High School, and Bishops Park College.

Transport

The town is served by Clacton-on-Sea railway station (90 minutes to London Liverpool Street station). Clacton also has an airfield, which has been active since its use by the RAF during the Second World War. In the 1990s, the airfield was featured along with Roly ("The Wing Commander of Clacton") on the BBC television series "Airport".

Notable natives

The following were all born in Clacton-on-Sea:

• Ian Westlake, Leeds United and former Ipswich Town midfielder
• Paul Banks, lead singer of rock band Interpol
• Jeremy Spake, of BBC's Airport
• Christian Neal Capes, television actor/host/writer

Cultural references

In the British soap opera EastEnders, the characters of Frank Butcher and Pat Harris met at the Clacton Butlins in 1958.

The music video for "Always on My Mind" by The Pet Shop Boys, was filmed in Clacton, which was also the setting for their film, "It Couldn't Happen Here"

Golden Globe Award-nominated film Kinky Boots, was partly filmed on Clacton Pier as was Starter for Ten with James McAvoy, James Corden & Catherine Tate.

Gallery

Town centre	Town centre	Memorial gardens	A map from 1940
The entrance to the Pier	Beach	The Towers which once functioned as a hall of residence for St Osyths Teacher Training College.

See also

• Clactonian Man

Notes

References

• Jacobs, Norman (2002). Clacton Past. Chichester: Phillimore. ISBN 1-86077-225-0. 
• The Clacton Spear. The Natural History Museum. (2008). Retrieved 2008-07-05.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Clacton-on-Sea

• Updated daily Clacton photos
• Essex Photos - Clacton
• Clacton Local History
• Clacton & District Canine Society
• Tendring District Council
• St Osyth’s College and the Clacton Campus
• Bishops Park College
• Clacton County High School
• Colbayns High School
• grid reference TM175145

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