04 July, 2010

Clacton on Sea- don't bother

A trip to Clacton courtesy of a scheme whereby one can obtain cheap tickets to places. Firstly the train journey was OK although trains are infrequent and the station is not too far from the town, and very near the library which was having a booksale. I went into the Tourist Information office to ask if there was a self guided walk around the town, which there wasn't. The staff were helpful and told me that the gardens were lovely, which they were, but that there were no museums or anything like that. Clacton was founded in 1871 as a resort by somebody called Peter Bruff, so it has no aristocratic pretensions: it's a basic plebian holiday resort.

I had a look at the gardens, especially the 1920s garden

which were particularly nice, although more at their best in bright sunshine.
I also had a walk on the pier, where there were sociable urianls - arranged back to back so you could talk as if over a fence while you micturate... There weren't enough people in there to talk to.
The pier was OK with lots of rides and stuff for kids, as well as a gambling hell.

After walking through the gardens to the Martello Tower

and then walking back again the other way, looking in the charity shops (pretty poor really for a retirement place) I really had had enough of Clacton, even though Joe Longthorne was on at the Town Hall.
Pretty gardens but otherwise no interest.

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