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 Cup for the first, and to date only time, but lost 3–1 at home to Southend United. However, after finishing twenty-first out of 22 clubs in 1962–63, they were relegated back to Division One, and after a mid-table finish in 1963–64, returned to the Eastern Counties League. Clacton finished as runners-up in their first season back in the league, a feat repeated in 1974–75, a season in which they again reached the final qualifying round of the FA Cup. They also won the League Cup in 1973–74. The club remained in the Premier Division until the end of the 1991–92