Jaywick

Jaywick

Jaywick seafront
Jaywick
 Jaywick shown within Essex
Population 4,665 
OS grid referenceTM151135
DistrictTendring
Shire countyEssex
RegionEast
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town CLACTON-ON-SEA
Postcode district CO15
Dialling code 01255
Police Essex
Fire Essex
Ambulance East of England
EU Parliament East of England
UK ParliamentClacton
List of places
UK
England
Essex

Coordinates: 51°46′46″N 1°07′03″E / 51.7795°N 1.1174°E

Jaywick is a seaside village in the Tendring district of Essex, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Clacton-on-Sea. It lies on the North Sea coast of England, 60 miles (97 km) from London and 17 miles (27 km) from Colchester. It 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 impractical for agricultural use. It was purchased by the entrepreneur Frank Stedman in 1928 to provide low cost and affordable holiday homes to 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 being unsuitable for this purpose. 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 Indices of deprivation 2010, part of the village is the most deprived area in England. Similar reports followed in 2012 and 2013. Jaywick has significant problems with unemployment and a risk of flooding, despite several attempts by the local council and government to transform the area.

Location

The Martello Tower in Jaywick is now an arts centre.

Jaywick is in the Golf Green ward of the Tendring district of north-east Essex,[1] around 60 miles (97 km) from London and 17 miles (27 km) southeast of Colchester.[2][3] To the east, is Clacton-on-Sea, while to the west is the estuary of the River Colne. The area is divided into the Tudor estate to the north (also known as West Clacton), the Village to the southeast and the Brooklands and Grasslands estates to the southwest.[1][4]

Most shops are on the Broadway, the main shopping street in the village. One of the main attractions of the coastline is a 200-year-old Martello Tower, which is now an arts and heritage centre.[5] The "46 Brooklands Gardens" artwork by Nathan Coley was erected at that location in Jaywick as a 3-month show piece.[6]

The village is part of the parliamentary constituency of Clacton. Its member of parliament, Douglas Carswell represented the Conservative Party until September 2014 when he resigned his seat to join the UK Independence Party, successfully contesting the seat in a by-election the following month.[7]

History

What is now Jaywick was originally fields and salt marshes near Clacton and St Osyth.[8] A wooden spear from the Lower Paleolithic era, found locally in an area of foreshore erosion, is the oldest known man-made wooden artefact found in the British Isles.[9] During the 19th century, the area was popular for shooting and contained a rifle range.[10]

Because of its close proximity to the sea, Jaywick had never been a practical place for farming due to the risk from floods and the land remained unused.[11] A sea wall was built in 1880 to protect against flooding.[10]

A typical street in Jaywick

By the turn of the 20th century, campaigners such as William Morris had attempted to convince the virtues of self-sufficient communities for poor families away from large cities, which led to developments such as Peacehaven in Sussex in 1914.[8] The original site of Jaywick was proposed by property developer Frank Stedman in 1928 as a cheap holiday retreat for Londoners.[12] Stedman had noticed the increased popularity of Clacton as a holiday resort and believed that he could sell small plots of land to East End residents which could contain holiday homes.[8] Residents were encouraged to buy land and self-build properties,[11] with plots being offered as little as £25 (equivalent to £1,300 in 2015), while Stedman convinced buyers a house could be built for as little as £395 (equivalent to £20,800 in 2015).[13] An initial emphasis was on well-being, health and fitness, with outdoor exercises being popular.[14] However, Stedman was motivated primarily by money rather than altruism, and while he discussed plans of landscaping the development along with a lake and a sports centre, these never materialised.[8]

The original estate was developed in the shape of a car grill, with the roads named after various vehicle manufacturers.[14] Coaches regularly picked up holidaymakers throughout the 1930s from Ilford and Romford.[13] An 18-inch (460 mm) gauge miniature railway operated in Jaywick from 1936 to 1939. The locomotive was a model of a GNR Stirling 4-2-2.[13]

An abandoned house in Jaywick

Plotland development elsewhere in Britain was bulldozed following the Second World War, and various attempts were made by the local council to demolish Jaywick, but there was resistance from residents, who campaigned against this and won a preservation order in 1970.[12][14] The council were unhappy about a housing development sitting on such a flood-prone site, and modern conveniences were slow in arriving. A mains sewer system was only installed in 1977.[13]

In 1978, the government issued an "Article 4 Direction" to tightly control housing development in Jaywick.[15] Under this direction, planning permission is required for home improvements that would not normally be needed elsewhere, including all extensions, porches and garden structures. The direction was further revised in 2010.[16]

In the 1990s, 40 new prefabricated houses were built on adjacent land on a former holiday camp to rehouse some of the most dilapidated properties. Despite winning several architectural awards and being praised by the local government, only five of the older properties were demolished.[14] The original development along Brooklands has faced demolition, particularly dilapidated properties, purchasing of vacant sites and providing new properties.[17] New permanent residences in Brooklands are prohibited by council regulations.[18] Tendring District Council hope that by 2026, the area will change sufficiently to be attractive for development, and to provide a self-sufficient service based economy for tourism.[17]

Social issues

Shops and facilities have gradually closed down in Jaywick, and young people are finding employment increasingly difficult.

Despite being marketed as holiday homes, many of the original houses became permanent residences due to post-war housing shortages in London[2] and by 1950 there was a significant all-year round population.[19] Jaywick now includes large numbers of retired and unemployed people. A 2011 report in The Guardian found that 62% of working age residents in Jaywick received benefits, compared to 15% national average.[12] According to the Citizens Advice Bureau, 40% of residents are unable to work due to a disability or long term illness. 60% of pupils at Frobisher Primary School, on the edge of the village, receive free school meals.[20]

A 2009 report found that four out of Eastern England's ten cheapest streets in which to buy property are in Jaywick, with property on Tamarisk Way selling for an average of £44,050.[21] A 2013 report in The Guardian showed that bungalows were being sold on the Brooklands estate for around £20,000.[20]

In March 2011 East Jaywick was named as the most deprived area in England according to the Indices of deprivation 2010, based on several factors including poverty, crime, education and skill levels, unemployment and housing, as assessed in 2008.[1][22] Referring to the older estates in Jaywick, the headmistress of Frobisher Primary School said "When you go to certain parts of it, you are quite shocked that you are in England."[20] In 2012, Jaywick was labelled the UK's youth unemployment hotspot. Randeep Ramesh, writing in The Guardian, noted that there has been little employment available since Butlins closed down in 1983. Local charity Signpost has helped young people find employment, which has become difficult due to many jobs being a significant distance away in Colchester or Ipswich. Tightening of building regulations has meant that simple builders jobs for cash are now illegal without appropriate health and safety training. Drug abuse is a particular problem in the area.[3] Because of the area's reputation for economic deprivation, private developers are unwilling to invest there.[23] In August 2013 a "one mile fresh food challenge" in Jaywick, organised by The Big Issue, found only "a bag of blackened bananas" and "potatoes at £2.29 per 2kg".[24]

The former Mermaid Inn in Brooklands Avenue has been left derelict after a fire.

The local controlling council, Tendring District Council, are working with the residents of Brooklands on improving the area and trying to buy up land to build new housing. Council leader Mick Page stated "The only way we will start anything in Jaywick is for us to lead it. We will be the catalyst."[23] The council are proposing to stop the allocation of housing benefit to rented properties in Jaywick by 2017, to discourage rental in poor quality buildings.[25] Former council leader Neil Stock has called Jaywick "an embarrassment to the whole country", blaming planning regulations he believes are draconian.[2] Stock reported around 30 to 40 absentee landlords were renting poor quality accommodation to tenants on benefits without requiring any deposit, adding that "the state is subsidising squalor."[26] Carswell has been critical of the government's response to Jaywick, noting that although the area contained large numbers of unemployed, these were often people who were unable to find work both due to disabilities or a lack of available jobs.[20] In 2011, the council complained to the Prime Minister David Cameron, asking him to lobby the Committee for the 2012 London Olympics to ensure the Olympic torch passed near Jaywick, the only one of the ten most deprived wards in England not to do so.[27]

The Jaywick Community Resource Centre sits on a former boating lake in Brooklands, and provides support to local residents. In 2010, two film makers compiled a documentary, Jaywick Escapes, which showed life in the village. The film combined archive footage from the estate's early years alongside recent interviews with recovering heroin addicts living in Jaywick. It was shown at the 2012 East End Film Festival and an extract was subsequently shown at the Science Museum.[2]

Environmental risk

During the North Sea flood of 1953, Jaywick was flooded, resulting in the deaths of 35 people.[28] Since then, sea defences have been put in place and many precautions have been made to avoid flooding. Coastal Jaywick has benefited from 30,000 cubic metres of dredged sand as part of a £9.4 million upgrade.[29] The residential areas are categorised under the highest risk of flooding in the country, and a council report anticipated that global warming would increase the risk to human life in Jaywick from flooding over the next 50 to 75 years.[17] The area would be the first to be hit by floods in the event of a tidal surge over the marshes surrounding St Osyth.[30]

The main road into the village is close to sea level and there is risk that a flood could cut off access for emergency services.[31] Many roads, particularly around Brooklands, are unadopted without any public funding, which further hinders emergency access, as well as giving the area a "run down" look. Because properties are sited on marshland, road improvements tend to have a short lifespan and are quickly damaged in bad weather.[32] In December 2013, due to a severe flood risk, all residents in Jaywick were asked by Essex Police to leave the area, to be homed in school buildings around Clacton.[33]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jaywick – Background (PDF) (Report). Tendring District Council. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Usborne, Simon (10 July 2012). "On The Edge of Nowhere". The Independent. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Randeep Ramesh (2012-02-10). "Essex coastal town of Jaywick is UK's youth unemployment hotspot | Society". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-07-18.
  4. ↑ Tendring 2010, p. 2.
  5. ↑ "Archive – Jaywick Martello Tower JMT". Jaywickmartellotower.org. Retrieved 2013-07-18.
  6. ↑ Jes Fernie. "Nathan Coley". Studionathancoley.com. Retrieved 2013-07-18.
  7. ↑ "Profile: Douglas Carswell MP". BBC News. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Aslet 2011, p. 293.
  9. ↑ Roe, Derek (1981). The Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods in Britain. London: Routledge. pp. 140–141. ISBN 0-7100-0600-4.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Faultley & Garon 2004, p. 45.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Hall & Ward 2014, p. 82.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Sharrock, David (29 March 2011). "Essex resort of Jaywick named England's most deprived town". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Stratton & Trinder 2014, p. 192.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Gray 2006, p. 288.
  15. ↑ Tendring 2010, p. 8.
  16. ↑ Tendring 2010, p. 9.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Tendring 2010, p. 16.
  18. ↑ Tendring 2010, p. 26.
  19. ↑ "Jaywick may ask Clacton to take over estate". Essex Newsman. 10 October 1950. p. 3. Retrieved 8 November 2014 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Gentleman, Amelia (20 March 2013). "Budget 2013: little hope for aspirations of the country's poorest". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  21. ↑ Wilkin, Chris (6 July 2009). "Jaywick has four of cheapest streets in the east". Daily Gazette. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  22. ↑ "The English Indices of Deprivation 2010" (PDF). Department of Communities and Local Government. 24 March 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Jaywick: Council houses a 'catalyst' for investment". East Anglian Daily Times. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  24. ↑ Forrest, Adam (7 August 2013). "The One-Mile Fresh Food Challenge". The Big Issue. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  25. ↑ "Jaywick – regeneration". Tendring District Council. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  26. ↑ Nelson, Alistair (4 November 2011). "Jaywick: New planning rules will "encourage development"". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  27. ↑ Watt, Nicholas (26 December 2011). "2012 Olympics torch relay route upsets England's most deprived ward". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  28. ↑ Aslet 2011, p. 294.
  29. ↑ Sheldrick, Giles (5 April 2013). "Once an idyll by sea, now the nation's most run-down place". Daily Express. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  30. ↑ Tendring 2010, p. 22.
  31. ↑ Tendring 2010, p. 5.
  32. ↑ Tendring 2010, p. 6.
  33. ↑ "Essex tidal surge: All Jaywick's residents evacuated". BBC News. 5 December 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2014.

Sources

  • Aslet, Clive (2011). Villages of Britain: The Five Hundred Villages that Made the Countryside. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-408-81799-5.
  • Faultley, M.P.B.; Garon, J.H. (2004). Essex Coastline: Then and Now. ISBN 978-0-954-80100-7.
  • Gray, Fred (2006). Designing the Seaside: Architecture, Society and Nature. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-861-89274-4.
  • Hall, Peter; Ward, Peter (2014). Sociable Cities: The 21st-Century Reinvention of the Garden City. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-63595-6.
  • Stratton, Michael; Trinder, Barrie (2014). Twentieth Century Industrial Archaeology. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-74801-1.
  • Tendring (2010). Interim Planning Policy for Jaywick (Report). Tendring District Council. Retrieved 17 October 2014.

Further reading

External links

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