CONTEXT 175 : MARCH 2023 39 EAST ANGLIA COAST The first obstacle was CUDC’s reluctance to grant further planning consent. In this, the first of many tussles with the local authority, the council was concerned that plans submitted did not show any drainage system. Stedman offered to construct this, but the CUDC’s objection was that a conventional drainage system would be unsuitable as the area was at or below sea level. This is where the blueprint for the true future of Jaywick is established. The initial setback with the CUDC and its ambivalent approach would result in a different building programme, and a change of emphasis at the new resort. Only part of Jaywick lay within the jurisdiction of the CUDC. The area to the west was within the parish of Saint Osyth, and under the jurisdiction of the parish council and Tendring Urban District Council (TUDC). This area, where Stedman’s ‘Mile Long Sporting Lake’ was to have been situated, became the Brooklands and Grasslands estates. Permission was given by the TUDC for around 800 plots to be developed as holiday accommodation and bathing huts.3 These were advertised and marketed as a priority, as the CUDC was not prepared to allow further residential developments. Planning permission for holiday accommodation was given on the condition that the structures built there would not be used for overnight accommodation. At this stage the form and layout of the Jaywick Sands Estate began to take shape. Those buying a retreat by the sea were seemingly untroubled by the restrictions placed on their plots if, indeed, they were aware of them. As plans were submitted and passed for structures containing several rooms, it seemed to Stedman that the intentions for use were clear enough. He continued to push for having the estate connected to the main sewer, yet only mains water, gas and electricity connections were achieved by 1931. Stedman’s frustration was ultimately vented in the largely ineffective full-page advertisement in the Clacton Times and East Essex Gazette in 1932. The unemployed of Clacton were challenged to lobby local councillors in order not to lose out on work opportunities created by Stedman’s scheme. Some residents on the estate were politically active working-class east Londoners, and people who valued their newfound opportunities for freedom and a pastoral lifestyle. George Lansbury, Labour MP for Poplar and former leader of the Labour Party in the House of Commons, figured among them. A key figure in the promotion of the Land and Labour League, and of Keir Hardie’s view that the state should provide ‘home colonies on the idle lands’, Lansbury was vociferous in his support for working-class aspirations for a stake in rural and coastal England. Although Jaywick was by design a holiday colony, it was accessible to eastend working families. While he mentions little of his association with Jaywick in his memoirs, Lansbury’s views are clear: ‘I just long to see a start made on this job of reclaiming, recreating rural England.’ His nephew Ernest Lansbury worked with the residents, who were by now ratepayers. As contributors to the local authority, these ratepayers knew that they could achieve more if they organised themselves. It would have seemed logical that if the local authority charged rates, it must recognise the residential status of the plots. With politically experienced and well-connected members, the Jaywick Sands Freeholders Association was formed in 1931. Ernest Lansbury became its secretary. Faced with a divided and ambivalent council, the way ahead for Jaywick was given a positive impetus by the partnership that developed between Stedman and the Jaywick Sands Freeholders Association. St Osyth parish councillors also joined the Jaywick ‘Hut Owners’ to protest at county proposals to take an area including the western section of Jaywick Sands from St Osyth and hand it to Clacton. Such protests were largely motivated by an anticipated rise in rates. As the freeholders association established itself as a vociferous lobbying organisation, Stedman’s commitment was further demonstrated in 1934 at a meeting to discuss sea defences and water supply. Stedman offered to ‘make a present to the association of a £1,000 a year income from the new section.’ With a well-organised association campaigning for Jaywick, the remaining pre-war years were less troublesome for the estate than they might have been. The main concern, flooding, was realised in January 1936, when areas of the estate became inaccessible. High tides caused ³ Hardy, D and Ward, C (1984) Arcadia for All: the legacy of a makeshift landscape, London: Mansell More advertising by the Jaywick Sands Estate in 1931
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