Clacton-on-Sea, in Essex is the largest town on the Tendring Peninsula and was founded in 1871. It is a seaside resort that attracts many visitors.

Beside the sandy beaches, there are beautifully restored themed gardens, bowling greens, two theatres, a golf course and a Sports and Leisure Centre.

Clacton Carnival and Jazz Festival in the high season, Clacton Shopping Village, a major factory outlet shopping village opened in 1998, a vibrant Victorian pier, leisure centre, sport on land and water, Highfield Holiday Park and a lively nightlife, or dine and relaxing as you would expect from a major English seaside resort: fish and chips, pie and mash, Italian or Chinese food as well as Pubs, Restaurants and the end of pier Cafe.

The Clacton seafront gardens are a carpet of glorious colour throughout the season and provide a backdrop for miles of golden sandy beaches and the town's fun packed pier.

The town and its beaches are popular with visitors 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.

As well as all the daytime fun Clacton offers a varied and vibrant nightlife with its two theatres, The Princes and West Cliff, attracting top showbiz names and is is one of the last theatres in the country to put on an old style summer show. Clacton also has a great variety of pubs, clubs and restaurants to suit all tastes.

Clacton on Sea 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 remains were found at Clacton from that period.