Clacton-on-Sea is the largest town on the Tendring Peninsula, in Essex, England and was founded in 1871. It is a seaside resort which attracts many tourists in the summer but which like other English resorts has been in decline since foreign holidays became fashionable in the 1960s and 1970s.

Clacton has a pleasure pier, arcades, a golf course and an airfield. The town and its beaches are popular with tourists, and there is an annual entertainment programme including the 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 the groups the insane picnic and Spasmodic Caress.

1 History
2 Industry
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Image:Clacton on seamap.jpg 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 village is called Great Clacton.

Clacton-on-Sea as we know it was officially 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 is now an arcade and entertainment Pier. 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.

In archaeology, Clacton is famous as the eponymous site of the lower Palaeolithic Clactonian industry of flint tool manufacture.

[edit] 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.