Frinton-on-Sea

The place-name 'Frinton' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Frientuna. The name may mean 'fenced-in or enclosed town or settlement'.Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.188.

Until late Victorian times, Frinton-on-Sea was a church, several farms and a handful of cottages. In the 1890s, the original developer of the town, Peter Bruff, was bought out by the industrialist Richard Powell Cooper, who had already laid out the golf course.{{cite news|last=Peers |first=Deborah |title=Once upon a time in... Frinton |date=September 2008|work=Essex Life|publisher=Archant|pages=88–89|url=http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=Xx310Ki2Lg80&EID=ae1ff680-f48b-4a38-9931-2ac69df9011d&skip=true|access-date=18 January 2009}} (Registration required). Powell Cooper rejected Bruff's plans for a pier, stipulated the quality of housing to be built and prohibited boarding houses and pubs. The Sea Defence Act 1903 established a project to stabilise the cliffs, with the Greensward, which separates the Esplanade from the sea, put in place to stabilise the land further.

In the first half of the 20th century the town attracted visitors from high society. Connaught Avenue, named after the Duke of Connaught and opened by his wife, was nicknamed East Anglia's Bond Street.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} Other attractions included a lido, complete with palm trees, hotels along the Esplanade, and an amateur tennis tournament. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) frequented the golf club and Winston Churchill rented a house. Frinton was the last target in England attacked by the Luftwaffe, in 1944.{{cite web|title=Frinton-on-Sea|url=http://www.clacton-on-sea-essex.co.uk/Frinton-on-Sea.html|publisher=www.clacton-on-sea-essex.co.uk|access-date=5 January 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110226055342/http://www.clacton-on-sea-essex.co.uk/Frinton-on-Sea.html|archive-date=26 February 2011|df=dmy-all}}

The town has a reputation for a conservative nature (although it was in a Labour constituency from 1997 to 2005). Until recently, there were no pubs, although there have long been bars in seafront hotels and at the golf and War Memorial clubs. The first pub, the Lock and Barrel, opened in 2000.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,368560,00.html|title=There goes the neighbourhood|last=Burkeman |first=Oliver|date=15 September 2000|work=The Guardian|publisher=Guardian News and Media Limited|access-date=24 January 2009 | location=London}}

An electoral ward in the name of Frinton exists. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 4,002.{{cite web|url=http://www.ukcensusdata.com/frinton-e05004234#sthash.DY4VQTeG.dpbs|title=Ward population 2011|access-date=24 September 2015}} On 1 April 1934 the parish was abolished to form "Frinton and Walton".{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10239590|title=Relationships and changes Frinton CP/AP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|access-date=27 December 2021}} In 1931 the parish had a population of 2196.{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10239590/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Frinton CP/AP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|access-date=27 December 2021}}

Frinton has three points of entry by road: an unadopted road from Walton-on-the-Naze in the north, a residential road, and a CCTV monitored level crossing adjacent to the railway station which replaced the older gated crossing in 2009. Frinton was once geographically distinct, but housing estates now line the roads between Frinton and Walton-on-the-Naze, Kirby Cross and Kirby-Le-Soken.

The town has sandy and stone beach washed daily, more than a mile (1,600 m) long, with wardens in season, and an area of sea zoned for swimming, sailing and windsurfing. The shore is lined by a promenade with several hundred beach huts. Landward from the promenade is a long greensward, popular with young and old alike, stretching from the boundary with Walton-on-Naze to the golf club in the south.

Six miles offshore lies Gunfleet Lighthouse, constructed in 1850 but abandoned in 1921.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/CityReunion/FortFanatics.html|title=Fort Fanatics|access-date=18 September 2011|archive-date=29 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329172804/http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/CityReunion/FortFanatics.html|url-status=dead}}

There are two Anglican parish churches: St Mary the Virgin is Norman in parts. The church of St Mary Magdalene was built in 1928 to accommodate worshippers from St Mary the Virgin. Across the road from St Mary Magadalene is the Evangelical Gospel Chapel. Frinton's Catholic church, the Church of the Sacred Heart and St Francis, was built in 1904, as a public hall known as Queen's Hall; the architect was William Hayne. It was acquired as a church in the 1920s.[https://frintoncatholicchurch.wordpress.com/church-history/ Frinton Catholic Church History] There is also a Methodist church, and a Free church.

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Television signals are received from the Sudbury TV transmitter. {{cite web|url=https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Sudbury|title=Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter|date=1 May 2004|website=UK Free TV|accessdate=2 December 2023}} Local radio stations are BBC Essex on 103.5 FM, Heart East on 96.1 FM, Greatest Hits Radio East (formerly Dream 100 FM) on 100.2 FM and Actual Radio an DAB station. The town is served by the local newspaper, Clacton and Frinton Gazette which publishes on Thursdays. {{cite web|url=https://www.britishpapers.co.uk/england-eang/frinton-gazette/|title=Frinton Gazette|date=17 May 2014|website=British Papers|accessdate=2 December 2023}}

• {{annotated link|T.E.B. Clarke}}
• {{annotated link|Richard Cobb}}
• {{annotated link|Ross Davidson}}
• {{annotated link|Fritz Dupre}}
• {{annotated link|Alfred 'Ken' Gatward}}
• {{annotated link|David Hamilton (broadcasting)}}
• {{annotated link|Mike Read}}
• {{annotated link|Deborah Watling}}

{{reflist}}

{{Wikivoyage|Frinton-on-Sea}}

{{Essex}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Towns in Essex

Category:Seaside resorts in Essex

Category:Populated coastal places in Essex

Category:Beaches of Essex

Category:Tendring

Category:Former civil parishes in Essex