Towns & Villages

Take a day to explore some of the enchanting towns in Tendring!

Visit the links below (or place names on the map) for the Essex Sunshine Coast guide to some of our local towns, villages and attractions, learn more about the wide range of history and heritage they have to offer! You may also like to listen to our Audio Guides, just sit back and listen to our commentary on the towns and villages of the North Essex Coast!

 

Tourism Strategy for Tendring.

    • Ardleigh

    Ardleigh

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    There is a fine group of 16th and 17th Century cottages grouped around the 15th Century Parish Church in the centre of the village. Spring Valley Mill, a privately owned 18th Century timber framed weather boarded building, was used as a watermill, later adapted to steam and is now empty. It formed the setting for M.Saville’s ‘Treasure at the Mill’. Read more…
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    Beaumont-cum-Moze

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    The village contains the disused Trading Quay, intended for vessels using Walton Backwaters. A tablet records the fact that it was rebuilt in 1832 using stones from old London Bridge. The 11th Century Parish Church of St. Leonard contains the grave of Viscount Byng of Vimy, Governor General of Canada. Photos by David Blackwell. Read more…
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    Bradfield

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    Bradfield is located about five kilometres (3 miles) east of Manningtree. The Anglican church is dedicated to Saint Lawrence. One of the windows commemorates Edwin Harris Dunning, the first pilot to land an aircraft on a moving ship. Read more…
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    Brightlingsea

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    The town has a history of shipbuilding and seafaring. There are disused oyster pits near the Town Hard, where the Colne Smack Preservation Society can also be found. In 1347 five ships and 51 men were sent to the siege of Calais. ‘William of Brightlingsea’ was in Sir Francis Drake’s fleet which vanquished the Spanish Armada. Brightlingsea has the distinction Read more…
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    Clacton-on-Sea

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    The town was settled during the Old Stone Age by a race of hunters. Flint implements and the fossilised bones of the cave lion, straight tusked elephant and wild ox have been unearthed on the Clacton foreshore and at Lion Point. Clacton developed from a small village into a seaside resort in the late 19th Century with the fashion for Read more…
    • Dovercourt lighthouse

    Dovercourt

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    The town has been settled from Prehistoric times. Late Bronze Age axe heads were found at upper Dovercourt. To the Romans, the town was an important source of building stone ‘Septaria’, taken from the cliffs. The modern town largely developed in Victorian times as a fashionable resort. Read more…
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    Elmstead

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    Elmstead, a pleasant village, 4½ miles East by North of Colchester. It is sometimes called Elmstead Market, owing to a market being held in the village during one of the visitations of the plague in Colchester. The Church of St. Anne and St. Lawrence to the north of the village has a rare carved oak recumbent effigy of a knight Read more…
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    Frinton-on-Sea

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    Developed as a select resort by Sir Richard Cooper and largely expanded after 1886. The area south of Frinton Gates was laid out with detached houses set along broad tree lined avenues and has preserved a unique local character. The Church of Old St. Mary contains some interesting panels of William Morris stained glass in the East window, designed by Read more…
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    Great Bentley

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    Great Bentley is probably best known for, what is reputedly the largest Village Green in England, with approximately 43 acres. The Village Green was purchased by the Parish Council on behalf of the residents of the Great Bentley in 1965 from the then Lord of the Manor. Read more…
    • Harwich Website15cETN 24

    Harwich

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    This attractive old town was built on a grid pattern, in the 13th Century, by the Earl of Norfolk, to exploit its strategic position at the mouth of the Stour/Orwell estuary. The famous seafarers Hawkins, Drake and Frobisher all sailed from Harwich during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I on various expeditions. The Mayflower, the ship which carried the Pilgrim Read more…
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    Lawford

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    There are ring ditches and banks to the south west of Reed Island, the remnants of a Neolithic religious site. Flint implements and Neolithic pottery have been found there. The Church of St. Mary contains rich 14th Century stone carvings in the chancel. Read more…
    • Mistley

    Mistley & Manningtree

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    These are attractive small ports at the head of the Stour, the gateway to “Constable Country” in Suffolk. Manningtree was a centre of the cloth trade in Tudor times and later a flourishing port for barges, carrying mixed cargoes down the coast to London. It contains an impressive group of Georgian buildings. It is believed that the reference to Falstaff Read more…
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    St Osyth

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    This attractive village derives its name from St. Osyth daughter of the first Christian King of East Anglia, who was beheaded by the Danes in AD 653. The village centre is dominated by the Augustinian Priory ruins and its magnificent Gatehouse, which was completed in 1475. The latter forms one of the finest monastic buildings in the country. The priory Read more…
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    Tendring

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    The village is graced by the elegant Church of St. Edmund. The church is dedicated to the last king of independent East Anglia, martyred by the Danes in the 9th Century. Read more…
    • The Naze 2

    The Naze, Walton

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    The Naze, made up of red sandstone cliffs formed during the Ice Age, is rich in fossils. The octagonal brick Naze Tower was built as a beacon in 1720 to warn sailors of the West Rocks offshore. The Saltings at Hamford Water were featured in Paul Gallico’s novel ‘The Snow Goose’ and Arthur Ransome’s children’s story ‘Secret Water’. It is Read more…
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    Thorrington

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    Thorrington Mill was built in the early 19th Century. It is the only remaining Tide Mill in Essex and one of very few left in East Anglia. Tip: The Tide Mill is not currently open to tourists and is not accessable by car, but you can see it via the public footpath along the creek from Arlesford. Read more…
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    Walton-on-the-Naze

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    Walton-on-the-Naze town illustrates the character of an early Victorian seaside resort. The seafront was developed in 1825 and Marine Parade, then named The Crescent, was built in 1832. Its Pier was originally constructed of wood in 1830 and was 330 feet long. It was extended to its present length of 2,610 feet in 1898 when the electric train service was Read more…
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