On Thursday the 25th of April 2019, I took Ben out for a walk and we ended up on a unplanned walk to Clacton pier.
We left Martello Beach Campsite and headed down onto Jaywick Sands Beach.
Jaywick was constructed in the 1930s as a holiday resort for Londoners, but over time has become one of the most deprived areas in the country.
The land was originally a combination of fields and salt marshes, and was generally unsuitable for agricultural use. It was purchased by the entrepreneur Frank Stedman in 1928 to provide low cost, affordable holiday homes for working-class families, and became a popular holiday destination throughout the 1930s. After the Second World War, a shortage of housing meant the properties gradually became permanently inhabited, despite not being designed for regular use. The local community resisted demolition of the worst estates, and the government tightly controlled building regulations in the village while attempting to rehouse residents elsewhere.
Many of the holiday homes were never designed for long-term residence and are now in a state of disrepair. According to the Index of Multiple Deprivation of both 2010 and 2015, the eastern half of the village is the most deprived area of England. Jaywick has significant problems with unemployment and is at risk of flooding, despite several attempts by the local council and government to transform the area.
The name, which was first recorded in 1438 in the form Clakyngewyk, means "dwelling associated with a man named *Clacc". The first element was later dropped, giving at first Gey wyck (1584) and eventually the modern form.
I pass Jaywick Sands Beach bar in Jaywick, unfortunately closed at this time, Ill be back to try it though!
They sell ice cream, including Kelly scoop! Tennis balls, fruit smelly balls, rubber rings. Cooked food. Slushie, bottle water, cans of fizzy drinks. Etc.. Was hoping for beer, Ill find out!
As we pass Clacton On Sea Golf Club on our left a Martello Tower comes into view.
The monument includes a martello tower situated on the sea front at Eastness, between Clacton-on-Sea and Jaywick, and originally identified by the letter D in the series of east coast towers built along the Clacton Beach between 1809 and 1812.
The Listed Grade II tower stands complete to its full height of some 10m. The exterior vari-coloured brickwork shows no signs of the rendering commonly applied to these structures. The brickwork was also fully exposed when the tower was photographed in 1913, and it is thought likely that this was its original appearance. The date stone above the door and the stone mouldings around the door and windows are, also, flush with the exterior face rather than slightly proud, as is normally the case where traces of stucco survive. All four windows, the door and the ladder chute below the door, have been bricked up in recent years to prevent vandalism. The interior is, however, reported to survive well and to retain many original features.
At the time of its construction, the tower stood some distance back from the shoreline, behind a forward battery which had been built a few years before. The battery, a `V'-shaped barbette style brick wall pointing out to sea, had provision for three 24-pound cannons and was accompanied by a brick guardhouse and forward magazine. All traces of these structures have long since disappeared, removed by coastal erosion and the construction of modern sea defences in the early 1980s.
As with all the Essex martello towers, tower D was armed and provisioned but not garrisoned after its completion in 1812. A report by the Ordnance Barrack Department in that year pointed to the unhealthy nature of the Essex coastline and recommended that the artillerymen be stationed at Weely (some 8km inland) where barracks had been built for the Essex defence regiments in 1803. Throughout the period leading up to the appeasement of Europe in 1815, the entire line of Essex towers was in the charge of `Barrack Sergeant Burnett' of Great Clacton. After 1816 married pensioners from sapper and artillery units were appointed as caretakers, and tower D came into the care of of Gunner James Smith. Little is known of the tower's use through the remainder of the 19th century. In 1904 it was sold to the West Clacton Estate and shortly afterwards the surrounding land became part of the Clacton Golf Course. Writing in 1938, the local historian Kenneth Walker mentioned one Dr Sharp, who had occupied the tower until his death some eight years before. The tower was commandeered by the army during World War II, when an observation post, a squat brick-built structure with a flat concrete roof, was constructed above the original forward gun emplacement. This structure still stands, its curved seaward elevation matching the shape of the underlying embrasure.
We pass some moored boast and Martello Tower D.
Martello towers are small coastal artillery forts constructed after the renewal of war with France in 1803 to defend England against the threat of invasion. Their design and name were taken from a tower at Martello Bay, Corsica. The 103 towers in the chain were developed in two phases, those in East Sussex and Kent being built between 1805 and 1808, and those in Essex and Suffolk between 1809 and 1812. The south coast towers were numbered 1-74 (from Beachy Head to Dover) while those to the east were identified by a system of letters (A-Z from St Osyth to Alderton and AA-CC from Hollesley to Aldeburgh). The towers are usually circular or near circular in plan, with an average height of 10m containing three levels. They were built in brick, and often rendered. The tower walls are both massive (up to 4m thick on the seaward side) and battered (slope inwards) so as to resist cannon fire. The top floor, open to sky and supported by a massive central pillar, carried swivelling cannon or cannons within a deep embrasure. The middle floor served as living quarters for about 25 men and contained the only external door in the tower, some 3m-4m above ground level. The semi-basement ground floor was reached via a trapdoor from the garrison room above and contained the powder magazine, alcoves for shot, cartridge and general stores, and a water cistern. Some towers were supported by forward batteries, and many were surrounded by dry moats and/or water-filled moats, crossed by bridges or drawbridges. The east coast towers are slightly larger than the earlier examples to the south, measuring an average of 17.5m in diameter at the base. They are also oval in plan rather than circular, allowing a still thicker wall to face the direction of fire. They carried three guns on the fighting top (usually a 24 pound cannon and two shorter guns or howitzers) set on swivelling carriages within a clover leaf shaped embrasure, as opposed to the single rotating cannon of the southern line, and had an additional internal staircase to speed transfer of ammunition from the middle floor to the roof. East coast towers have four windows at the middle level (compared to two on the south coast towers). The defensive strength of the Martello tower system never needed to be tested before the end of the Napoleonic War. They were brought to readiness on a few further occasions in the early 19th century, but the whole concept of the Martello tower was soon rendered obsolete by developments in heavy artillery. Some served a variety of other uses (such as signalling or coast guard stations) into the 20th century, and a few saw use as lookout points or even gun emplacements during the two World Wars. Of the original 29 towers on the east coast, 17 now survive. Those which survive well and display a diversity of original components are considered to merit protection.
Eleven martello towers were originally constructed along the 20km stretch of Essex coastline known as the Clacton Beach, some adding to existing batteries or replacing earlier signal stations. The line of towers, identified by the letters A to K, ran from Stone Point on the north bank of the Colne Estuary northwards to Walton on the Naze - with the large circular redoubt at Harwich punctuating the northern end. In addition to tower D, five others now remain standing and are the subject of separate schedulings: those at Stone Point (A), Jaywick (C), Clacton Wash (E), central Clacton (F) and Walton Mere (K).
Now as we approach Clacton On Sea , Martello Tower E comes into view.
The monument includes a martello tower situated towards the western end of the Clacton foreshore (an area formally known as Clacton Wash) and originally identified by the letter `E' in the series of east coast towers built in Essex between 1809 and 1812.
The Listed Grade II tower stands complete to its original height of about 10m. The date stone above the door and the stone mouldings around the door and windows all protrude slightly from the exterior brickwork, indicating that this tower, as with many on the east coast, was originally covered by coarse stucco. Although this material has largely been replaced by modern rendering, the overall appearance is not dissimilar to the original. The openings, the four windows, the door and the ladder chute below the door, have all been sealed in recent years to prevent vandalism. The interior is, however, believed to survive largely intact and to retain many original features.
According to a contemporary report, the tower was built to command the `landing place at Clacton Wash and the great road leading from it into the country'. When completed in 1812 it stood some distance back from the shoreline, positioned behind a forward battery which had been built here in 1805. The battery was of the barbette-type: a `V'-shaped brick wall pointing out to sea, terraced to the rear and equipped with low embrasures to allow three 24-pound cannons to fire from traversing platforms. All traces of this structure, and of the guard house and magazine which may have accompanied it, have long since disappeared. The greater part was probably removed following an auction of building materials in 1819; any remains to have survived this process have since been lost to coastal erosion and the construction of modern sea defences. The tower itself now stands just behind the modern sea wall.
As with all the Essex martello towers, tower E was armed and provisioned but not garrisoned after its completion in 1812. A report by the Ordnance Barrack Department in that year pointed to the unhealthy nature of the Essex coastline and recommended that the artillerymen be stationed at Weely (some 8km inland) where barracks had been built for the Essex defence regiments in 1803. Throughout the period leading up to the settlement of Europe in 1815 the entire line of Essex towers was in the charge of `Barrack Sergeant Burnett' of Great Clacton. After 1816 married pensioners from sapper and artillery units were appointed as caretakers. Little is known of the tower's use through the remainder of the 19th century, although Cornwallis Coughley, Inspector of Towers and Edward Quinn, Battery Keeper, are recorded at Great Clacton in the County Directory for 1848. In 1904 the War Office sold the tower to the West Clacton Estate. By 1935 it lay within Butlin's Holiday Camp and the roof was subsequently used to mount a cistern supplying water to the chalets. The holiday camp closed in the early 1980s and it has since been replaced by housing developments (Martello Bay).
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| Wind Surfers and Martello Tower E |
Clacton On Sea is a seaside resort that saw a peak of tourists in the summer months between the 1950s and 1970s.
Clacton was a site of the lower Palaeolithic Clactonian industry of flint tool manufacture. The "Clacton Spear", a wooden (yew) spear found at Clacton in 1911 and dated at 450,000 years ago, is the oldest such spear to have been found in Britain.
There is plentiful archaelogical evidence of scattered settlement in the area, including Beaker Folk traces at Point Clear to the south and round houses (as cropmarks) near the A133 extension from Weeley to the north. There may have been a pre-Roman (ie Celtic) settlement at Gt. Clacton and there were almost certainly scattered farmsteads as the important British Celtic settlement at Colchester was only about 15 miles (24 km) away. No traces of substantial Roman settlement have been found at Clacton though there are several Roman villa sites nearby (e.g. Alresford, Wivenhoe, Brightlingsea). After the Anglo-Saxon migration and the foundation of the kingdom of Essex, a village called Claccingatun ("the village of Clacc's or Clacca's people") was extablished. No pre-Norman buildings survive today. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Clachintuna.
Clacton was repeatedly surveyed by the Army in the Napoleonic Wars as a possible invasion beach-head for Napoleon and his Dutch allies. There was a large army and militia camp where Holland-on-Sea now stands. In 1810 5 Martello Towers were built to guard the beaches between Colne Point to the south and what is now Holland-on-Sea to the north of the town.
In 1871 the Essex railway engineer and land developer Peter Bruff, the steamboat owner William Jackson, and a group of businessmen built a pier and the Royal Hotel (now converted to flats) on a stretch of farmland adjoining low gravelly cliffs and a firm sand-and-shingle beach near the villages of Great and Little Clacton. The town of Clacton-on-Sea was officially incorporated in 1872 and laid out rather haphazardly over the next few years: though it has a central 'grand' avenue (originally Electric Parade, now Pier Avenue) the street plan incorporates many previously rural lanes and tracks, such as Wash Lane. Plots and streets were sold off piecemeal to developers and speculators. In 1882 the Great Eastern Railway already serving the well-established resort of Walton-on-the-Naze along the coast, built a spur to Clacton-on-Sea with a junction at Thorpe-le-Soken.
Clacton grew into the largest seaside resort between Southend-on-Sea and Great Yarmouth, with some 10,000 residents by 1914 and c.20,000 by 1939. Due to its accessiblity from the East End of London and the Essex suburbs, Clacton, like Southend, remained predominantly geared to catering for working-class and lower-middle-class holidaymakers - though it had, and has, it more 'select' areas.
For well over a century Clacton Pier has been an RNLI lifeboat station.
Just before the Second World War the building of Butlin's Holiday Camp boosted its economy, though the Army took it over between then and 1945 for use as an internment, engineer, pioneer and light anti-aircraft artillery training camp.
Four notable incidents during the war were:
1) Very early in the war a German airman bailed out over the town. Procedures for dealing with enemy captives were not yet well-established and he was treated as a celebrity guest for some days, including by the Town Council, before eventually being handed over to the military.
2) The crash of a Luftwaffe Heinkel 111 bomber on 30 April 1940, demolished several houses in the Vista Road area as one of the magnetic mines on board exploded on impact, killing the crew and 2 civilians (the other mine was defused by experts from the Navy);
3) The bombing of the Wagstaff Corner area in May 1941, which felled some well-known buildings;
4) The impact of a V2 rocket in front of the Tower Hotel, injuring dozens of troops inside though without bringing down the structure. Clacton lay beneath the route taken by many of the V1 and V2 bombs aimed at London.
A big role in the town during the pre- and post-war period was played by the Kingsman family, which bought and developed the Pier and ran a pleasure-steamer service from London. Until the early 1960s a summer sea excursion to Calais also ran.
Butlins reopened the Holiday Camp after the war. This, the expansion of the nearby chalet town of Jaywick - originally a speculative private development of inter-war years - and increasing capacious caravan sites all swelled by the movement of retired Londoners into the area, altered the character of the town.
In 1964 the town was in the national news when rival gangs of Mods and Rockers fought on the sea front and several arrests were made. (In mid-60s youth culture, 'Mods' favoured scooters and wore parkas, while 'rockers' rode motorcycles and wore leather and denim. The incident became known locally as 'The Battle of Pier Gap' following a headline in the local paper, the East Essex Gazette). Throughout the 1960s Clacton beach remained a popular summer excursion for residents of Essex and east London and in August was often crammed to capacity in the area around the Pier.
The 'Pirate Radio' ship m.v.Glaxy, which broadcast Wonderful Radio London, was anchored offshore from 1964 until its forced closure in 1967.
With the advent of cheap flights to Mediterranean resorts in the 1970s the holiday industry began to decline. Increasingly, hotels' and guest-houses' spare capacity have become used as 'temporary' accommodation by the local authority to house those on welfare, refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. Pier Ward, in the centre of the town, is one of the poorest in the UK, (nearby Jaywick is often cited as the poorest of all).
Since around 1970 several well-known local buildings have been demolished, including the palatial Art Deco Odeon cinema (a great loss to both the town and the county); the Warwick Castle pub; the Waverley Hotel; Barker House, a large home for the learning disabled, and Groom's Crippleage, which housed orphaned handicapped girls from London. Cordy's, a well-known large seafront restaurant has been converted to other uses. The site of Butlin's Holiday Camp has been redeveloped as a housing estate.
A large wind-farm some 3 miles offshore on Gunfleet Sands, visible from many streets and from various places in the flat hinterland of the town was built in the early 2000s.
The once famously crowded Bus Station in Jackson Road has become a car park. The Ocean Revue Theatre, where Max Bygraves made one of his first appearances, has closed.
Clacton's town centre and seafront areas were struck by an F1/T2 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.
The town expanded substantially in the 1980s, '90s and first decade of the 21st century, with new housing estates on the rural margins of town, and some brownfield developments. Many residents commute to work in Colchester, Witham, Chelmsford or London. In common with many seaside towns, unemployment has remained stubbornly high in Clacton itself compared with much of South-eastern England.
Clactonian politics, perhaps unsurprisingly in a town with a historically high proportion of elderly and retired residents, has been dominated by the right for most of the town's existence. Recently UKIP took control of Tendring Council from the Conservatives. The local MP from 2005-17, Douglas Carswell, was originally elected as a Conservative, later joined UKIP, then resigned and sat as an independent. National media, headed by investigative journalist Michael Crick drew attention to UKIP's election campaign finances in the Clacton constituency, which then came under scrutiny.
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| Martello Tower F |
Now we pass Martello Tower F.
Martello tower F is set within a dry moat and situated at the junction of Marine Parade West and Tower Road, overlooking the promenade and sea front to the west of Clacton Pier.
The Listed Grade II tower was originally identified by the letter `F' within the series of towers built along the Essex coastline between 1809 and 1812. It stands complete to its original height of about 10m. The upper portion of the tower (approximately one third) protrudes above the lip of the brick built retaining wall of the moat, which encircles the base at a distance of some 10m and was intended to provide further protection from both cannon fire and ground assault. The date stone above the door, and the denticulated stone mouldings surrounding both the door and the four windows, all protrude slightly from the exposed brickwork indicating that this tower, like many others on the east coast, was originally covered by a layer of coarse stucco. The first floor entrance, to the north west, is still approached by the original cast iron footbridge which spans the ditch on three pairs of stilt- like legs. The section nearest the tower is designed as a drawbridge, capable of being raised to seal the entrance. One of the chains used to raise the bridge remains in place, together with the slots and iron pulleys set into the head of the entrance passage. The arrangement of joists for the floor within the first floor garrison room remains substantially intact, and although the original oak planking has long since been replaced, the flagstone flooring for the officer's chamber (above the vault of the main magazine) remains fully intact. All four of the windows to this floor were framed and glazed during the 1960s, although the apertures still retain some of the iron bars dating from 1818. These were installed to improve ventilation by allowing the wooden shutters (long since removed) to remain open.
The stairways to the roof both survive. The roof itself has been sealed with silver mastic in recent years but the masonry of the parapet and gun step is fully visible, together with the box-like recesses used for ready-use cannon balls and most of the iron hauling-rings used for traversing and preparing the cannons. The cannons themselves were taken down in the 19th century, and the pivots for the three traversing carriages (usually three further cannon barrels embedded, muzzle upwards, in the roof) have also been removed.
A timber-clad observation room, formally a coastguard lookout, stands above the forward gun embrasure, resting on a metal gantry with legs set into concrete blocks on the tower's roof. This structure, together with the attached metal staircase and all associated plumbing and wiring, is excluded from the scheduling.
The ground floor of the tower is accessible via a modern passageway cut through the rear wall of a storage alcove on the south west side. All the other alcoves and casemates remain largely unaltered and the lamp passage to the main magazine (on the seaward side) is particularly well preserved. The original ventilation system included an arrangement of flues set within the thickness of the outer wall and linked to box-like apertures and slots in the internal walls and alcoves of the ground and first floor rooms. This system remains substantially complete.
As with all the Essex martello towers, tower F was armed and provisioned but not garrisoned after its completion in 1812. A report by the Ordnance Barrack Department in that year pointed to the unhealthy nature of the Essex coastline and recommended that the artillerymen be stationed at Weely (some 8km inland) where barracks had been built for the Essex defence regiments in 1803. Throughout the period leading up to the settlement of Europe in 1815, the entire line of Essex towers was in the charge of one `Barrack Sergeant Burnett' of Great Clacton. After 1816 married pensioners from sapper and artillery units were employed as caretakers - Sergeant Major John Baker being appointed to tower F. The tower remained in occupation through the remainder of the 19th century. A report of 1823 states that the ground within the ditch was sown with wheat, and the tower may later have provided the dwelling for Edward Quinn, recorded as the Great Clacton battery keeper in the County Directory for 1848. The battery itself was built at the same time as the tower and included a V-shaped brick wall pointing towards the sea, terraced to the rear and equipped with three 24 pound cannons on traversing carriages. This structure is said to have largely disappeared over the cliffs in 1883, and all further traces have since been lost to coastal erosion and the development of the promenade. Two of the guns from the battery were unearthed and placed on display in nearby Angelfield in 1905. Both, however, were removed at the outset of World War I, ostensibly for fear of attracting the attention of passing German warships.
In the mid-19th century the tower was occupied by Mr T W Hook, and in 1888 the roof came into use as a coastguard look out. Fragments of iron stanchions which evidently carried steps up the outside of the tower from the drawbridge may date from this time. In World War I the tower was commandeered as a piquet station for G Company of the 8th Battalion Essex Regiment. In the inter-war years the tower came into the hands of the local authority, and in 1931 the interior was as opened as museum. The museum was short lived as the tower was returned to military control during World War II and thereafter leased to the Ministry of Defence. The interior remained in use by the Royal Naval Auxilliary Service (RNAS) until 1990. A childrens' zoo was established around the tower in the 1970s but closed in the late 1980s.
Now we walk towards Clacton Pier that is currently having a major revamp.
The Pier was officially opened on 27th July 1871 when the SS 'Albert Edward' called, bringing with it a party of directors from Woolwich Steam Packet Company and around 200 guests. When it opened it was just 160 yards in length and 4 yards wide.
Clacton Pier was originally built mainly as a landing platform, a jetty to accommodate the movement of manufactured goods, products and many other items. They thought that some passengers may visit but the owners could not have dreamt of such an overwhelming footfall. With The Piers and Promenade offering a new type of day out at the sea Victorians were simply flocking to Clacton. It was soon realised, as the numbers continued to grow, that there was money to be made from the holidaymakers. Word spread about this tourist hot spot so buildings and shelters were slowly added.
August 1981 saw local businessmen Francis McGinty, John Treadwell, Denis McGinty and David Howe take ownership of the pier from Michael Goss with plans for a major redevelopment of the Pier including the possibility of a bar and disco, reintroduction of the dolphins to the dolphinarium and an upgrade of the pier ride offering. The proceeding years saw major additions to the pier at varying stages including the Whirlwind roller coaster, a Circus, Ice rink and a Roller Rink and even a water slide, unfortunately not all of the additions were a success and the pier company struggled financially on a couple of occasions until eventually in around 1993 the then operating company went into receivership which is where it remained for around about one year.
In 1994, a local businessman and his family, the Harrisons, bought the pier. They embarked on an ambitious and successful modernisation project to attract 20th century day trippers. The pier emerged as a modern amusement park, virtually unique in the sense that there are rides as you first enter, with the rest dotted throughout the length of the pier.
In March 2009 the pier was purchased by the Clacton Pier Company, who installed a new focal point, a 50 ft helter-skelter. Originally built in 1949 and used in a travelling show, it was featured in a 2008/2009 Marks & Spencer television advert. The helter-skelter collapsed during the St Jude storm on 28 October 2013.
Now we pass a memorial stone Dedicated to PC Dibell.
A memorial stone has been unveiled in Clacton today to honour PC Ian Dibell who was killed trying to stop a gunman in 2012.
A local man called Trevor Marshall had arrived at his home in Clacton where he was met by his neighbour Peter Reeve who pointed a gun at him.
In the panic, Marshall and his partner fled the building and tried to run away. Reeve fired shots at them and then followed them in a car.
Marshall and his partner ran into Redbridge Road, near to where PC Dibell lived.
Although PC Dibell was off duty that day, he ran from his house and lunged himself through the driver's window of Reeve's car. He tried to wrestle the gun away from him but was shot in the chest. Witnesses tried to administer CPR but he died.
It was later revealed that PC Dibell had ran back into his house to get his warrant card before confronting Reeve -meaning he was on duty at the time of his death.
A manhunt was sparked to find Reeve. His body was eventually found in a churchyard in Writtle, Essex. He'd shot himself.
PC Dibell has been recognized with a number of high-profile posthumous awards since his death.
Most notably, he was awarded the George Medal for gallantry in December 2013 - the first police officer in more than 20 years to do so.
We walk through many of the gardens that lead up to the Pier.
The floral beds in the gardens are planted twice a year; in late May for the summer and again in October for the following spring. The numbers of plants used across the Tendring District is in the region of 250,000 per year. The displays are designed by a member of the horticultural staff and are planted and maintained throughout the year by grounds maintenance staff.
The Seafront Gardens in Clacton are often described as the 'jewel in the crown' and are admired by locals and visitors alike. They are frequently used as a focal point by the Clacton In Bloom organisation in the annual Anglia in Bloom Competition. In 2007 the Memorial Garden in Clacton was given the honour of the 'Best Local Authority Floral Display' at the Anglia in Bloom Award Ceremony. The Crescent Gardens in Frinton-on-Sea are also used as part of Frinton In Bloom's portfolio, who have been frequent winners of Anglia In Blooms 'Small Town Award'.
Both Clacton Seafront Gardens and The Crescent Gardens are Green Flag Award winning sites. To enjoy our coast and gardens, why not try the Clacton Seafront and Garden Walk.
I walk from the Pier up into town to Bus Stop C on Pier Avenue to catch the No 4 bus back to Jaywick (a single was £2.90). This was a lovely 3 and a half mile walk.
