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
Sunshine Coast Line Wivenhoe to , which opened on 17 April 1866. There were also proposals to build a line to Clacton as early as 1866, but nothing came of them until 1877, when the Clacton-on-Sea Railway was incorporated. The connection from to Clacton opened on 4 July 1882, also operated by the GER. The GER soon negotiated to buy both the Tendring Hundred Railway and the Clacton-on-Sea Railway, and both became part of the GER on 1 July 1883. The Wivenhoe & Brightlingsea company was absorbed by the GER on 9 June 1893. In 1923 the line (along with the rest of