Frinton-on-Sea
Frinton-on-Sea is a seaside town in the civil parish of Frinton and Walton, in the Tendring district of Essex, England. At the 2021 census the built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics had a population of 4,951.
History
The place-name 'Frinton' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Frientuna. The name may mean 'fenced-in or enclosed town or settlement'.Frinton was historically a small village comprising a church, several farms and a handful of cottages. In the early 1870s the village was said to comprise just six houses and have a population of 29, and it was noted that "...the sea has washed away a great part of the parish, and is still making encroachment." The oldest parts of the original parish church, dedicated to St Mary, date from the from 14th century.
The Tendring Hundred Railway was opened in 1867, skirting the northern edge of Frinton parish, but there was no station at Frinton initially; the nearest stations were at and. Much of the land around Frinton was subsequently bought by developers in the 1880s with the intention of laying out a new resort. Frinton railway station opened in 1888 to serve the new town.
In the 1890s, the original developer of the town, Peter Bruff, was bought out by the industrialist Richard Powell Cooper, who had already laid out the golf course. Powell Cooper rejected Bruff's plans for a pier, stipulated the quality of housing to be built and prohibited boarding houses and pubs. The Sea Defence Act 1903 established a project to stabilise the cliffs, with the Greensward, which separates the Esplanade from the sea, put in place to stabilise the land further.
In the first half of the 20th century the town attracted visitors from high society. A new main shopping street was built linking the railway station to the esplanade. The street was formally opened in 1904 by Louise Margaret, Duchess of Connaught, and named Connaught Avenue in her honour. Other attractions included a lido, complete with palm trees, hotels along the Esplanade, and an amateur tennis tournament. The Prince of Wales frequented the golf club and Winston Churchill rented a house. Frinton was the last target in England attacked by the Luftwaffe, in 1944.
The town has a reputation for a conservative nature. Until recently, there were no pubs, although there have long been bars in seafront hotels and at the golf and War Memorial clubs. The first pub, the Lock and Barrel, opened in 2000.
Governance
There are three tiers of local government covering Frinton, at parish, district, and county level: Frinton and Walton Town Council, Tendring District Council, and Essex County Council. The town council is based at the Council House in the Triangle Shopping Centre, in the suburbs of Frinton.Administrative history
Frinton was an ancient parish in the Tendring hundred of Essex. When elected parish and district councils were established under the Local Government Act 1894, Frinton was given a parish council and included in the Tendring Rural District. In 1901 the parish was removed from Tendring Rural District and made its own urban district. Whereas the name of the parish remained officially just Frinton, the urban district was named Frinton-on-Sea.Frinton-on-Sea Urban District was abolished in 1934, merging with the neighbouring urban district of Walton-on-the-Naze and the parishes of Great Holland and Kirby-le-Soken to form a new urban district called Frinton and Walton. At the 1931 census, Frinton had a population of 2,196.
Frinton and Walton Urban District was in turn abolished in 1974, becoming part of the new district of Tendring. A successor parish called Frinton and Walton was created covering the area of the former urban district, with its parish council taking the name Frinton and Walton Town Council.
Geography
Frinton has three points of entry by road: an unadopted road from Walton-on-the-Naze in the north, a residential road, and a CCTV monitored level crossing adjacent to the railway station which replaced the older gated crossing in 2009. Frinton was once geographically distinct, but housing estates now line the roads between Frinton and Walton-on-the-Naze, Kirby Cross and Kirby-Le-Soken.The town has sandy and stone beach washed daily, more than a mile long, with wardens in season, and an area of sea zoned for swimming, sailing and windsurfing. The shore is lined by a promenade with several hundred beach huts. Landward from the promenade is a long greensward, popular with young and old alike, stretching from the boundary with Walton-on-Naze to the golf club in the south.
Six miles offshore lies Gunfleet Lighthouse, constructed in 1850 but abandoned in 1921.