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
Clacton-on-Sea Hotel, and Groom's Crippleage (which housed orphaned handicapped girls from London). Cordy's seafront restaurant has been converted to other uses. Butlins Camp has now given way to flats. The other main change on the sea front is the large wind-farm located 3 miles offshore on Gunfleet Sand, which is visible from many streets in the town and even from inland. The once famously crowded Bus Station in Jackson Road has become a car park. The Ocean Revue Theatre, where Max Bygraves made one of his first appearances, has shut. Clacton's town centre and seafront areas were struck by an F1/T2