| Clacton |
Article Index for Clacton |
Information AboutClacton |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CLACTON-ON-SEA | |
| seaside resorts in england | |
| towns in essex | |
| history of clacton | |
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 used to attract many tourists in the '60s and '70s, but which like other English resorts has been in decline since foreign holidays became fashionable in '70s and '80s making it more of a Retirement hotspot these days. 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 and Clacton Airshow, an aerial display involving historic aircraft such as the Lancaster Bomber , Spitfires , Helicopters , and the Red Arrows . Clacton-on-Sea is served by a bustling shopping area with many of the usual national chains represented. Clacton-on-Sea has two theatres, the West Cliff Theatre and the Princes Theatre. The West Cliff is one of the last theatres is the country to put on an old style summer show. Clacton used to be home to one of the oldest Butlins sites, but in 1983, it was closed and replaced with the Martello Bay housing estate. Clacton's population has grown hugely, in 1901 it was 7456, 1991 was 45,065 and today stands at over 53000. Clacton was once the home of the singer Sade and C.J from The Wildhearts as well as the groups The Insane Picnic , Spasmodic Caress , The Quivering Tendency and Prince Charles' Forgotten Aspect . Leeds United and former Ipswich Town midfielder Ian Westlake was born in the town, as well as the lead singer of rock band Interpol , Paul Banks . HISTORY Great Clacton was founded by the Celts in c.100BC. 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 , a census conducted by William The Conqueror , records the village as ''Clachintuna''. Early village life was dominated by St John's Church which is now 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 serious historians. Nowadays, this area is called Great Clacton. 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 archaeology, Clacton is famous as the eponymous site of the lower Palaeolithic Clactonian Industry of flint tool manufacture. "Clactonian" is the name given for the man whose flint tools were found at Clacton from that period. Stone-age people set up camp, at Clacton (now lost beneath the waves due to coastal erosion). This was in the Interglacial stage (a major division of the Pleistocene epoch, which occurred from 1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago). 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. |
|
|