Westcliff-on-Sea

The southern area of what is now known as Westcliff, south of the London Road, was known as Milton or Milton Hamlet until the period 1860–1880{{Cite book|last=Pearce, Marion.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46570209|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|pages=1|oclc=46570209}} when the Milton Estate and surrounding land was sold to speculators who preferred the name Westcliff-on-Sea.{{Cite book|last=Pearce, Marion.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46570209|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|pages=41|oclc=46570209}} The name Milton was derived from being in the middle between Leigh and Southchurch, with the settlement said to be from where Leigh Road meets Chalkwell Park to the mayor's residence at Porters.

The manor of the Milton (spelt in old English as Meleton), was first recorded as being given to the monks at Cantebury in 959. By the Domesday Book in 1066, Milton had grown to an agricultural community

covering 240 acres, and by 1086 the annual value of the estate was 100 shillings.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/miltonchalkwellc0000pear/page/3/mode/1up?q=history+of+%22Southend-on-Sea%22|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|author=M. Pearce|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|pages=3–4}} By the end of the 13th century, the manor was managed for the church by a Serjeant, a man whose position in the feudal society was between a Yeoman and a Knight. The Serjeant was paid 13 shillings and 4 pence a year to manage the estate, which in 1291 was worth an annual rate of £18, 7 shillings and 6 pence. By 1301, the Prior Henry of Eastry acted as the Lord of the Manor, and instigated a building programme which included a new mill costing £15, 5 shillings and 10 pence. The settlement had grown to include its own court and gallows.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/miltonchalkwellc0000pear/page/3/mode/1up?q=history+of+%22Southend-on-Sea%22|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|author=M. Pearce|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|page=5}} However, in 1327 a great flood hit Milton which saw over 40 acres of land lost to the sea and the Hamlet Water Mill was submerged. Supposedly, according to legend, the flood destroyed Milton's church. During the Black Death, there was no recorded human casualties, but the community lost seven oxen, eleven cows and their calves and sixty sheep. During the Peasants' Revolt led by Walt Tyler, the villagers attacked the hall and destroyed the manorial records.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/miltonchalkwellc0000pear/page/3/mode/1up?q=history+of+%22Southend-on-Sea%22|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|author=M. Pearce|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|page=13}} With England at war with France, a warning beacon was erected in 1387 at what us now Clifftown Parade, which was recorded as still standing in 1667.

The protestant martyr John Frith was captured on the shore at Milton trying to escape in 1532.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/burningtimehenry0000roun/page/55/mode/1up?q=%22southend-on-sea%22|title=The burning time : Henry VIII, Bloody Mary, and the Protestant martyrs of London|author=Rounding, Virginia|date=2017|isbn=9781250040640|page=55}} At the end of the English Reformation, Henry VIII granted the manor to Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich. By the time the station opened in 1895, it was named Westcliff not Milton.{{Cite book|last=Pearce, Marion.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46570209|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|pages=46–49|oclc=46570209}} The area between Milton Road and Hamlet Court Road was named The Hamlet by the original developers Brassey, Peto, Betts & Co. when they developed it as a "high class suburban retreat". Milton Hall (demolished 1900) was on the site of the what is now Nazareth House{{Cite book|last=Pearce, Marion.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46570209|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|pages=35|oclc=46570209}} on the London Road. Hamlet Court was a large house in the area between Hamlet Court Road, Canewdon Road, and Ditton Court Road and was demolished in 1929.

File:Thames Estuary at Westcliff.jpg, Kent from the shore at Westcliff-On-Sea]]

The cliffs formed by erosion of the local quaternary geology give views over the Thames Estuary towards the Kent coastline to the south. The coastline has been transformed into sandy beaches through the use of groynes and imported sand. The estuary at this point has extensive mud flats. At low tide, the water typically retreats some 600 m from the beach, leaving the mud flats exposed.

Westcliff-on-Sea is covered by several wards under Southend-on-Sea City Council, including some that fall outside of the designated area of Westcliff. The wards are:

• Westborough
• Milton
• Victoria
• Prittlewell

The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway route passing through the suburb was completed to Southend in 1856 but the Westcliff railway station in Station Road was not opened until 1895.{{cite book | title= Essex | series=The Buildings of England | publisher=Yale University Press | author=James Bettley and Nikolaus Pevsner | page=712 | year=2007}} It is now managed by c2c.

Westcliff is served by two selective secondary schools: Westcliff High School for Girls and Westcliff High School for Boys, two Catholic secondary schools: St Thomas More High School for boys and St Bernard's High School, Westcliff-on-Sea for girls, and the non selective Chase High School.

Several areas of Westcliff have been classified as conservation areas: Clifftown bordering Southend town centre and including Prittlewell Square gardens, Shorefield and the Leas towards the sea front, and Milton focused on the Park Estate between Park Street and Milton Road. The Milton Conservation Area includes the Grade II listed building which was formerly the Wesleyan Chapel (Park Road Methodist Church).{{Cite web|title=Milton Conservation Area|url=https://www.southend.gov.uk/info/200422/conservation_areas/406/milton_conservation_area|last=Holmes|first=Katherine|website=southend.gov.uk|language=en|access-date=2020-05-14}} This was completed in 1872 to the design of Elijah Hoole (1837-1912){{Cite book|last=Pevsner|first=Nikolaus|title=Essex|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1954|series=Buildings of England|location=Harmondsworth|pages=326}} and was Southend's first permanent Methodist Church.{{Cite book|last=Pearce, Marion.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46570209|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|pages=56|oclc=46570209}}

Westcliff contains a number of other Grade II listed buildings: Our Lady Help of Christians and St Helen's Church in Milton Road, the Church of Saint Alban the Martyr in St John's Road, the former Havens department store in Hamlet Court Road, Marteg House in Annerley Road, Westcliff Library in London Road, and the Palace Theatre.{{Cite web|title=Listed Buildings|url=https://www.southend.gov.uk/info/200163/design_and_the_historic_environment/534/listed_buildings/2|last=Nelson|first=Rob|website=southend.gov.uk|language=en|access-date=2020-05-14}} Westcliff Library, designed by Patrick Burridge, the council's architect in 1956, was built on a site damaged by bombing in World War II. The building was listed as Grade II in 1998.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/englandspostwarl0000harw/page/9/mode/1up?q=%22Westcliff-on-Sea%22|title=England's post-war listed buildings : including scheduled monuments and registered landscapes|author=Harwood, Elain; Davies, James O.|date=2015|isbn=9781849941464|publisher=Batsford|page=221}}

The official list entries for these are available from Historic England on the National Heritage List for England.{{Cite web|title=National Heritage List for England|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/|website=Historic England}}

The main shopping area in Westcliff-on-Sea is Hamlet Court Road, where the department store Havens established itself in 1901, and remained the anchor store until its closure in 2017.{{cite web|url=http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/15281204.End_of_an_era_as_Havens_store_prepares_to_close_after_almost_100_years_on_the_high_street/|title=End of an era as Havens store prepares to close after almost 100 years on the high street - Evening Echo p.12 May 2017|date=12 May 2017 |accessdate=12 May 2017}} Hamlet Court Road took its name from a manor house called the Hamlet Court, which stood on land now occupied by Pavarotti's restaurant and adjoining shops, facing towards the sea with sweeping gardens down to the rail line. The road later developed into a strong independent retail area and quickly became famous outside the area as the Bond Street of Essex.{{cite web|url=http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/10464614.Hamlet_Court_Road_street_party_filmed_for_BBC_show/?ref=arc|title=Hamlet Court Road street party filmed for BBC show - Evening Echo p.6 June 2013|date=6 June 2013 |access-date=19 December 2016}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fBJLH49xa-YC&q=%22Hamlet+Court+Road%22+is+Bond+Street&pg=PA219|title=London's Turning – The making of Thames Gateway – Edited by Philip Cohen & Michael J. Rustin page 219|isbn=9780754670636|access-date=19 December 2016|last1=Cohen|first1=Philip|last2=Rustin|first2=Michael J.|date=January 2008|publisher=Ashgate Publishing }} There were many haberdashers and specialist shops, and it was not too unusual to see chauffeurs waiting for their employers to emerge from the shops.

The economic recessions of the 1980s and 1990s saw the area decline. The road underwent a £1 million regeneration in the early 2000s and a further regeneration in 2010. Further plans have been put forward by Southend-on-Sea City Council to pedestrianise half of the street,{{cite news|url=https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/23394721.half-hamlet-court-road-pedestrianised/|title=Half of Hamlet Court Road could be pedestrianised|newspaper=Evening Echo|date=17 March 2023}} while the local historical organisation, the Milton Society is campaigning to regenerate the road on the lines of Margate and the Cathedral Quarter in Derby.{{cite web|url=https://miltonsociety.com/regeneration/|title=Regeneration|publisher=Milton Society|access-date=10 April 2023}}

The Milton Ward in Westcliff is one of the most deprived areas in England. The ward is mostly in the top 20% most deprived areas in the East of England, but some of the ward is in the top 10% most deprived areas in the country.{{cite web|url=https://southend.moderngov.co.uk/Data/Cabinet/200409071400/Agenda/$att5433.doc.pdf|title=Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004|id=Southend-on-Sea Borough Council|date=2004}}

File:Westcliff-on-Sea. The Parade. (NBY 443151).jpg

The two main theatres in Westcliff are the Cliffs Pavilion, which overlooks the seafront, and the Palace Theatre situated on the London Road.{{cite web|title=Southend Theatres|url=https://southendtheatres.org.uk/Online/|website=southendtheatres.org.uk|access-date=11 April 2016}}

Westcliff-on-Sea is also home to the Thames Estuary Yacht Club and the Genting Casino Westcliff. Westcliff RFC currently play in National League 2 East, the fourth tier of the English rugby union system.

Westcliff is the location for the French novel Un souvenir by Michel Déon.{{Cite web|url=http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=169805.html|title=Un souvenir (TV)|language=French|work=AlloCiné|accessdate=2015-05-13}}

• Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904), poet and journalist, lived at Hamlet Court from 1878.
• David Atkinson, politician{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9mC7pEr0R6QC&dq=%22southend+college+of+technology%22&pg=PA93|title=The Almanac of British Politics|author=Robert Waller, Byron Criddle|date=1999|isbn=9780415185417|page=93|publisher=Routledge}}
• Trevor Bailey (1923–2011), test cricketer and cricket writer and broadcaster, was born there.
• John Barber (1919–2004), former Finance Director of Ford of Europe and managing director of British Leyland.{{cite web|url=https://www.aronline.co.uk/news/obituary-john-barber-2/|title=Obituary – John Barber|publisher=aronline.co.uk|date=13 November 2004|access-date=30 September 2020}}
• Dorothea Bate, Welsh palaeontologist and pioneer of archaeozoology, died in Westcliff-on-Sea in 1951[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/67163?docPos=2 Bate, Dorothea Minola Alice (1878–1951), palaeontologist] by Karolyn Shindler in Dictionary of National Biography online (accessed 23 November 2007)
• E. Power Biggs (1906–1977), concert organist was born there.{{Cite web|title=Southend Timeline|url=https://www.southendtimeline.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425072618/http://www.southendtimeline.com/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=25 April 2009|website=Southend Timeline|access-date=2020-05-25}}
• Robert Williams Buchanan (1841–1901), poet, novelist and playwright, lived at Hamlet Court from 1884.{{Cite book|last=Pearce, Marion.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46570209|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|pages=47|oclc=46570209}}
• Dick Clement (born 1937) comedy writer and director, was born there.{{cite book|year=2001|first1=Richard |last1=Webster |first2=Dick |last2=Clement |first3=Ian |last3=la Frenais |isbn=0-7472-3294-6|title=Porridge The Inside Story|publisher=Headline Book Publishing}}
• Geoffrey Crawley photographic expert and journalist. He was the editor in chief of British Journal of Photography for two decades and was noted for exposing the photographs of the Cottingley Fairies taken in the early 20th century as a hoax.Staff. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/8115973/Geoffrey-Crawley.html "Geoffrey Crawley, who has died aged 83, was a scientific journalist specialising in photography and in 1982 exposed the world's longest-running photographic hoax – the myth of the so-called Cottingley Fairies."], The Daily Telegraph, 7 November 2010. accessed 10 November 2010.
• Josh Cullen (born 1996), professional footballer who currently plays for Burnley and the Republic of Ireland national team.{{cite web | url=http://www.the42.ie/all-you-need-to-know-west-ha-ireland-u19-international-2207959-Jul2015/ | title=All you need to know about the Ireland U19 starlet who's just made his full debut for West Ham | work=The42 | access-date=7 August 2015}}
• Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen (1828–1894), curator and Director of the South Kensington Museum in London lived at Hamlet Court.{{Cite book|last=Pearce, Marion.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46570209|title=Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone|date=2000|publisher=Ian Henry|isbn=0-86025-510-7|location=Romford|pages=46|oclc=46570209}}
• Lee Evans, comedian. Lived in Westcliff.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780718177133/page/n10/mode/1up?q=%22Westcliff-on-Sea%22|title=The Life of Lee|author=Lee Evans|date=2012|isbn=9780718177133}}
• Jean Floud (1915–2013), sociologist and academic, was born there.Robert Skidelsky, [https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/apr/03/jean-floud "Jean Floud obituary"], The Guardian, 3 April 2013.
• Edward Greenfield (1928–2015) chief music writer in The Guardian from 1977 to 1993 and biographer of Andre Previn was born there and attended Westcliff High School for Boys.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11716680/Edward-Greenfield-writer-obituary.html|title=Edward Greenfield Writer Obituary|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=3 July 2015}}
• John Horsely (1920–2014), actor, was born there.{{Cite web|url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=8WtquEw%2FJ3%2Fl8mNtJ2vcEg&scan=1|title=Index entry|access-date=14 May 2011|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}
• Wilko Johnson (1947–2022) guitarist, singer and songwriter attended Westcliff High School for Boys and lived in Westcliff until his death.{{Cite web|title=Wilko Johnson – ARU|url=https://aru.ac.uk/graduation-and-alumni/honorary-award-holders2/wilko-johnson|access-date=2022-01-17|website=aru.ac.uk}}{{Cite web|title=Guitar legend Wilko back home after operation|url=https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local_news/11254083.guitar-legend-wilko-johnson-back-home-in-westcliff-after-operation/|access-date=2022-01-17|website=Echo|date=4 June 2014 |language=en}}
• Frank Matcham (1854–1920), theatre architect, retired to 28 Westcliff Parade, Westcliff-on-Sea and died there in 1920.{{Cite news|date=19 May 1920|title=Mr Frank Matcham Dead|page=10|work=Western Daily Press}}

File:House of Frank Matcham.jpg|alt=A large white house, partly with pitched roofs, and one section being surmounted by a tower-like structure with windows set in.]]

• Hugh Sells (1922–1978), first-class cricketer and Royal Air Force officer.{{cite web|url=http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/32/32661/32661.html |title=Player profile: Hugh Sells |publisher=CricketArchive |access-date=2019-03-21 |url-access=subscription}}
• Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams (1929–2003), English moral philosopher.Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/14/obituaries/14WILL.html "Sir Bernard Williams, 73, Oxford Philosopher, Dies"], The New York Times, 14 June 2003.
• Charles Leslie Wrenn (1895-1969), scholar and Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon 1945-1963.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/english-literature_202306/Oxford_Companion_to_English_Literature_Tom_McArthur_-_The_Oxford_companion_to_the_English_language-Oxford_University_Press/page/1128/mode/1up?q=%22Westcliff-on-Sea%22|title=The Oxford Companion to English Language|author=Tom McArthur|date=1992|isbn=019214183X|page=129|publisher=Oxford University Press}}

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{{Essex}}

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Category:Populated coastal places in Essex

Category:Seaside resorts in England

Category:Southend-on-Sea (district)