County Borough of Southend-on-Sea County Borough of Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea was a local government district from 1866 to 1974 around the seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England. Southend adopted the Local Government Act 1858 and a local board was established in 1866. It became an urban sanitary district in 1875. It was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1892. The name was changed from Southend to Southend-on-Sea in 1893. It gained the status of county borough in 1914. The local government district originally consisted of the South End of the parish of Prittlewell. This became a separate parish of St John the Baptist for
Clacton-on-Sea 1914 and 20,000 by 1939. For well over a century Clacton Pier has been an RNLI lifeboat station. Just before the Second World War the building of Butlin's Holiday Camp boosted its economy, though the Army took it over between then and 1945 for use as an internment, engineer, pioneer and light anti-aircraft artillery training camp The 3 most dramatic incidents during the war were: 1)The crash of a German He 111 aircraft on 30 April 1940, the explosion of one of the magnetic mines on board (killing the crew and 2 civilians, and the defusal of the other mine