Clacton-on-Sea possible invasion beach-head for Napoleon and his Dutch allies. There was a large army and militia camp where Holland-on-Sea now stands. In 1810 5 Martello Towers were built there to guard the beaches between Jaywick and Holland. Clacton was still a small village and a few outlying hamlets when the Essex railway engineer Peter Bruff, the steamboat owner William Jackson, and a group of businessmen built a pier and hotel there in the 1871. In the 1880s the Great Eastern Railway reached it, and it grew into the largest seaside resort between Southend and Yarmouth, with some 10,000 people by
F.C. Clacton until 1905, when they were renamed Clacton Town and joined the Clacton & District League, winning it in their first season. The club then returned to the Harwich & District League, and also joined the South East Anglian League in 1907, winning Division Two in 1907–08. In 1908 Clacton also began playing Colchester & District League and were Division Two champions and the Division Two Cup winners in 1909–10, also winning Division Two of the (now renamed) East Anglian League the following season. In 1912 the club folded for a second time, but were re-established the following year. They rejoined