History
Jaywick Sands, is a primarily small bungalow seaside resort located two mile North West of Clacton-on-Sea on the Essex Coast.
It appears on Chapman and Andre's map of Essex in 1777 as Jewick, many more recent maps still refer to it as Jewick, but spellings differ.
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The Jaywick Estate as it stands today, was founded in 1928, but the history of Jaywick goes back thousands of years. Once frequented by Bishops and Monks as a place for fishing, and the haunt of bands of Smugglers. The ground level drops from West Road and rises slightly near the Sea Wall, its highest point being at the eastern end of the Broadway, formerly Beach Road until 1953. From there the ground level dips towards Meadow Way.
The land was formed after the Ice Age over 30,000 years ago when melting ice left a pocket of water, while the North Sea was dry land Jaywick was merely a watering hole for prehistoric man. Once a 320 acre farm, the largest in Great Clacton, it was bordered on the West by a stream at Lion Point and Cockett Wick. Lion Point, 'Old Lion' is the parish boundary between St Osyth and Great Clacton according to a memorandum of 1774. To the East the farm extended to East Wick, and was bordered to the North by small farms that replaced old woodlands. To the South was the Sea a boundary of about a mile from Lion Point to Eastness.
A mound discovered at Lion Point is believed to be old Salt Workings, this along with relics and bones unearthed in the area, gives support to the theory that a considerable sized settlement existed there long before the Romans invaded.
A number of celtic coins have been found in Jaywick, the coins are on view at the Colchester and London museums. the Celts are thought to be the original founders of the community that became Great Clacton, named after a Saxon chieftan named Clacc. The place originally called Clakyngewyk, meaning 'dairy farm of the people of Clacc', this eventually became Jaywick.
The whole of this part of Essex once belonged to the Bishops of London, eventually conveyed to Henry VIII in 1545. The farm then passed to a procession of owners and tenants until it came into the possesion of one George Wegg who also bought Millars Barn and Crossway House.
in the 18th Century James Round married into the Wegg family, his grandson Charles Gray Round inherited the farm along with considerable other property in the area. On his death in 1867, he left the estates in trust, eventually passing to his nephew James Round, local conservative MP 1868-1906.
In 1920 the land went up for sale for £8,500
By 1928 when Frank Stedman became interested a Mrs. Tweedi was in possession and the land was sold for £7,500.
