please empty your brain below
Never mind the cost of housing - whats the broadband speed like?

| 07.07.16 - 7:48 a.m. | #

I remember Jaywick well. During the 1970's our family had two weeks every summer at the nearby Bel Air holiday camp at St Osyth Beach and every year at least once we would walk to Clacton for the day. Looking at your photo's the place hasn't changed one bit but you've brought back the memories of streets named after Morris, Woolsley etc. and sharing the path with road traffic and having to stand on the sea wall whenever anything larger than a family saloon came along. There was a huge thunderstorm during one such walk and shelter was taken under the canopy of the aforementioned beach bar. My parents now live in Clacton, opposite the bowling green you passed but any walks we take now tend to be towards the pier but next time we may just head the other way just for old times sake!

Phil | 07.07.16 - 8:26 a.m. | #

I can imagine that ecigs can readily be 'purloined', but furniture?

purloin
pəːˈlɔɪn
verb
past tense: purloined; past participle: purloined
steal (something).
"he must have managed to purloin a copy of the key"

Did you, perhaps, mean 'procured'?

David | 07.07.16 - 9:07 a.m. | #

I only had two holidays as a child: a week in Clacton was one of them. We visited Jaywick and were absolutely horrified by it; for years afterwards "it's almost as bad as Jaywick" was a family joke.

Scott | Homepage | 07.07.16 - 9:25 a.m. | #

Somebody should write a book

'From Sandbanks to Jaywick'

Looks like a potentially interesting route. Lots to see on way. Dorset, Winchester, a huge variety of London, even the Wivenhoe Ferry.

http://tinyurl.com/hugdfea

Lorenzo | 07.07.16 - 10:07 a.m. | #

I can remember some bits about a holiday we had along with my aunt's family in Jaywick soon after the war. There were potties under the beds, a privy down the garden and tank defences still on the beach.
The dads didn't stay (they needed to work) and we were expected to pick winkles off the rocks which my mum cooked up and then tried to persuade us to eat.
Our first ever family holiday...

popartist | 07.07.16 - 10:12 a.m. | #

When we used to stay with my Gran and Grandad at Clacton we would sometimes go to Jaywick as they had, and I assume still have, really nice beaches.

Also coming from south Essex with mainly the shingle beaches of Southend-on-Sea as our local beaches the sandy beaches of Clacton and Jaywick were a treat.

Barry | 07.07.16 - 10:20 a.m. | #

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the haphazard way it was developed, Jaywick reminds me very much of Peachaven, albeit a smaller, poorer and even more ramshackle version. And Peacehaven, apparently, is held up by town planners as a horrible warning of what would happen if they didn't exist.

Sarah | Homepage | 07.07.16 - 10:29 a.m. | #

The few visits I've made to Clacton presented little opportunity to explore the surrounding coastline east or west. I've just been taking a bit of a virtual tour via GoogleMaps to see some of the things I've been missing.
With names like Napier and Crossley, those Jaywick "Brooklands" road names are very much 'of their time.' It was some surprise to come across a Lotus Avenue until it turned out this seems to be a much more recent addition: it was good to see that the place hasn't entirely been frozen in time; and that the naming theme has been dusted off and carried on.

RogerW | 07.07.16 - 10:45 a.m. | #

I seem to recall that Jaywick features as an unlikely setting in the first few chapters of Lucy Ellmann's very funny novel "Dot in the Universe". Highly recommended (the book that is, not Jaywick).

michaelH | 07.07.16 - 12:04 p.m. | #

I remember the first time I stumbled across Jaywick by accident years ago, it was quite a shock as I didn't know such places existed ... I've watched the TV programmes with a sort of horrified fascination ... but I must say the place seemed to have quite a community feel about it even if it was in the "we've all got our backs to the wall" sort of spirit ... I think Essex's attempts at smartening the place up a bit will put an end to that

one part of me wants to tidy it up and make it more habitable and another part of me says why can't there be places where people do their own thing ... the "gentrification" mob would have a field day there because it's certainly not an unattractive location (and the street names are an absolute killer)

Caz | 07.07.16 - 2:40 p.m. | #

Loved your bit about Clacton,, I met the first girl I ever fell in love with,, Peggy Winterbourne in 1951,,, I still love you Peggy,, things should have worked out differently ,, cannot write more,, have had two recnt strokes and live in an 'old age home' Nightingale Lane,, Stan Shaw

Stan Shaw | 07.07.16 - 3:47 p.m. | #

@David

I too was a bit surprised at the use of the word "purloined" but I assumed it to be a tongue in cheek (although possibly unfair) dig at the likely clientele of the store.

Tim | 07.07.16 - 4:07 p.m. | #

This post gives the background information of the area to the recent Channel 5 programme: Benefits By The Sea. Wholly based on a life of Jaywick. A rather lot of smokers and drinkers round there. Watching the programme, I got jealous of how good and helpful the community is. So much more helpful than London

Neyagness | 07.07.16 - 6:50 p.m. | #

A very moving post for these times - thank you

| 07.07.16 - 9:51 p.m. | #

I've just been watching a programme on BBC4 about how foreign dining became popular in the UK, and it spent a fair while covering the rise of Chinese food.
What should it include but a clip of holiday makers competing in a contest to eat with chopsticks... all filmed at Butlins at Clacton!

RogerW | 08.07.16 - 12:36 a.m. | #

"like nowhere else I know"

How about the Liverpool Street - Aldgate East - Whitechapel axis?

Greg S | 08.07.16 - 11:53 a.m. | #

Jaywick also features as the home of the hero in the University Challenge film "Starter for Ten".

AndrewWS | 08.07.16 - 1:07 p.m. | #

Like the ghost sign in the last picture.

David | 08.07.16 - 3:08 p.m. | #

> Jaywick started out in 1928 as a cheap retreat for Londoners, mostly from the East End, who were offered small plots of land on the marshes to build a happy holiday home.

Anyone interested in the origins of Jaywick, Peacehaven (see above) and their like might enjoy "Arcadia for All", by Dennis Hardy and the late, great Colin Ward, a book that really brings alive the people and times of the "Plotlands", before post-WW2 planning control. If you're interested, try and find it in a library first, because actually buying one might hurt a bit.

Mike S. | 11.07.16 - 3:15 p.m. | #

I love the idea of the link between Sandbanks and Jaywick, though beware the Wivenhoe Ferry only runs at weekends in the summer months and only then the couple of hours either side of high tide. The tidal range of the Colne is quite surprising. http://www.rowhoeferry.co.uk

I wonder if one of the factors why the parts of Tendering has such depravation is poor access. Is there another resort area in the former NSE area which only has one train an hour to London (even smaller and further Weymouth has two trains an hour)? Even the service to Colchester (Town) the nearest major employment centre is uninspiring, hourly and not at all on Sundays!

Mark Norrington | 13.07.16 - 8:09 a.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy