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Clacton, Great (St. John the Baptist)

CLACTON, GREAT (St. John the Baptist), a parish, in the union and hundred of Tendring, N. division of Essex, 14½ miles (S. E. by E.) from Colchester; containing 1296 inhabitants. This parish, which was formerly the residence of the bishops of London, is bounded on the south by the North Sea, and comprises an area about fifteen miles in circumference. The soil in some parts is light and of inferior quality, and in others, especially towards the coast, a fine strong loam, producing abundant crops. A fair is held on the 29th of June. The living is a discharged vicarage, with the donative of Little Holland annexed, valued in the king's books at £10, and in the patronage of F. Nassau, Esq.; impropriators, Col. Harding and others. The great tithes have been commuted for £1146. 7., the vicarial for £250, and a rent-charge of £66 is paid to Travers' Knights of Windsor; the glebe contains 4½ acres, with a glebe-house. The church is a plain edifice, with a tower surmounted by a shingled spire. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans. Some horns and bones of enormous size were lately found in the clay which forms the cliffs on this part of the coast; among them were the grinding-tooth of an elephant, some colossal horns of the wild bull, and part of the skull of a rhinoceros.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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