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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Frinton-on-Sea

seaside town in the Tendring District of Essex, England

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ1464942 ↗
Source-derived summary

Frinton-on-Sea is a seaside town in the civil parish of Frinton and Walton, in the Tendring district of Essex, England. At the 2021 census, the built up area, as defined by the Office for National Statistics, had a population of 4,951.

Toponymy

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'.

History

Frinton was historically a small village, comprising a church, several farms and a handful of cottages. In the early 1870s, the village was said to comprise just six houses and have a population of 29; it was noted that "...the sea has washed away a great part of the parish, and is still making encroachment." The oldest parts of the original parish church, dedicated to St Mary, date from the from 14th century.

The Tendring Hundred Railway was opened in 1867, skirting the northern edge of Frinton parish, but there was no station at Frinton initially; the nearest were at Kirby Cross and Walton-on-the-Naze. Much of the land around Frinton was subsequently bought by developers in the 1880s with the intention of laying out a new resort. Frinton railway station opened in 1888 to serve the new town.

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.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Frinton-on-Sea” is seaside town in the Tendring District of Essex, England. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Frinton-on-Sea, seaside and town, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2021, 1086, 1867, 1888—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Frinton-on-Sea, seaside and town is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “seaside town in the Tendring District of Essex, England” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1464942. VIAF identifies the subject as 139669271. The Library of Congress control number is n88278753. Authority coordinates are 51.833, 1.245. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2021, 1086, 1867 and 1888.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Frinton-on-Sea”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Frinton-on-Sea primary sources, Frinton-on-Sea archive and Frinton-on-Sea research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Frinton-on-Sea”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Frinton-on-Sea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.