The Jaywick Chevy

[DodgeRover]

Looking at the 30s photos I actually thought what a nice place it looked.

[Dead_E23]

I've been to Venice beach, but the similarity hadn't struck me!   I'd say it's more comparable to Thorpeness, in that Venice was a speculative (but professionally built) speculative resort that employed whimsical architecture to draw in punters. 

 

Jaywick was self built, and therefore has more in common with other plotlands like Peacehaven or the (largely demolished and returned to nature) one at Langdon - or even the self-built bungalows on Dungeness.   Jonathan Meades talks about plotlands here.

[Pillock]

Love the idea of Jaywick and the old photos look awesome. Spent some time reading about how it went wrong when people had no choice but to spend 365 days a year in buildings that weren't built for it.

[sierraman]

I quite like the idea of a small bit of land and you build your own bungalow on it. In practice though it wouldn’t work, some would be built to a high standard and others would be a lash up.

[Guest Hooli]

 

Don't know about Jaywick particularly but in a lot of these places wouldn't it be better to move the tenants, buy out the owners and just shut the place down?  What's the point of a pit village if the pit closed in 1982 for example?  May sound harsh but not intended to be, surely it's better to move people to somewhere with more prospects than support a place with no jobs and increasing social issues?

 

It's only a couple of mile from Clacton & then another 10mile to Colchester, it's not isolated enough to have issues for people to get to work. I think the 'quality' and price of the area has attracted the sort of tenant who will never work & that's which has dragged it down rather than anything else. It's odd as when you visit the place it looks like it could be nice with a little effort.

 

As to pit villages, the one I live in just has people working in different places now while complaining it was better in the 70s.

 

If any of you lot insult my town im off too !

 

Give us a clue which town it is then!

[smellmycheese]

Anymore scouser jokes and I'm outta here forever (dummy hits floor)

[meggersdog]

Wasn't there an AS day trip to Jaywick about ten years ago.Or did I imagine it.I seem to recall it was in the area named after car manufacturers and the locals getting a bit arsey when they took photos of street names.Think Seths Hillman was there then the day trippers moved on.Maybe I did imagine it.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

To be fair, there has been a fair degree of coverage for crap towns over the last decade or so....

[shedenvy]

I remember going to Jaywick in about 2007 with my now wife.  We spent the day sunbathing on the beach and swimming in the sea, it was nice!  Then a couple of years back we saw the program on telly and even saw some of the stars* walking around Colchester.  I was quite shocked at how bad it looked though editing can show just about anything you want.

 

Getting back to crowdfunding the Chevy repair, I can't help think that the owner may have better ways to spend the money - I don't know say roof repair or paying the heating bill.  It's a nice idea, and i'd happily donate but it may be a little blinkered looking at one resident's old car.

 

[Junkman]

Anymore scouser jokes and I'm outta here forever (dummy hits floor)

 

There are no scouser jokes. It's all true.

[lesapandre]

I remember going to Jaywick in about 2007 with my now wife.  We spent the day sunbathing on the beach and swimming in the sea, it was nice!  Then a couple of years back we saw the program on telly and even saw some of the stars* walking around Colchester.  I was quite shocked at how bad it looked though editing can show just about anything you want.

 

Getting back to crowdfunding the Chevy repair, I can't help think that the owner may have better ways to spend the money - I don't know say roof repair or paying the heating bill.  It's a nice idea, and i'd happily donate but it may be a little blinkered looking at one resident's old car.

I don't have any direct experience of this place but have been involved with a lot of big and small scale urban regeneration elsewhere.

 

Helping people here directly is one way certainly and it would be something that may be occuring already either through the local authorities, other agencies or charities. There may be away of contributing, asking around would probably be the answer.

 

In terms of intervention by groups or individuals this may or may not be welcome as has been shown by a comment above. Detroit gets a lot of this urban explorer stuff and doomy photos - and a lot of people in the city are not pleased by being seen this way. But on the other hand Jaywick is still a seaside place and wherever you are seasides do get visitors. But don't be surprised if off the seafront the welcome is not immediate.

 

In the end it's about just asking people if you want to photograph or restore a car of whatever - once people feel they are not being made fun of they can be quite open.

 

We had a few sayings in the regen' business...one was 'do something do anything'. That was about doing what you could, what was possible, and what you could afford that seemed helpful, the other was 'quick wins' - ticking off a few easily achieved things to get the ball rolling on projects.

 

A lot of UK seaside resorts are struggling for a variety of reasons - some to do with former holiday accommodation becoming cheap lets and leading to areas of concentrated deprivation. Behind the razamataz Blackpool for example has some pretty ingrained social problems and so it seems Jaywick too.

 

But on the basis of a 'quick win' in relative terms and 'do something do anything' a bunch of car enthusiasts contributing to the repair of an old Chevrolet with the feelgood that would bring might lead to something else. Don't know. But however crappy the place we always remained optimistic when I was working. 

[Squire_Dawson]

If it can possibly save one old car from the fragger, we should help.

[DodgeRover]

Would the owner not have it insured?

[Heidel_Kakao]

Would the owner not have it insured?

Good point!

[adw1977]

But is it comprehensive insurance?

[Alan_Green]

Currently for sale on Facebook South Africa.  1959/60 Chevy Impala.  Not an exact match but the dented bits look the same. Bit rusty though:

 

 

 

[Junkman]

No, they are completely different and not interchangeable.

 

If FC insured, it's an instant write off, so the owner is well advised to not claim.

[solid61]

Currently for sale on Facebook South Africa.  1959/60 Chevy Impala.  Not an exact match but the dented bits look the same. Bit rusty though:

b.PNG

Thats a 59,every panel will be different.

[lesapandre]

A bit more on the history of Jaywick. Looking through the web, the particular problems here have stemmed from the the fact that it really was built as a holiday resort and never for full time occupation. World War II brought all that to an end, and Post-War housing shortages led to homes being used all year. Houses were timber built on very small plots and close-packed, so whereas in other similar beach-side housing developments of this era, where bigger plots led in due course to rebuilding of more permanent homes, here it really wasn't worth it (the 1953 East Anglia floods where a number of people in the village were drowned only added to this feeling of hopelessness). That combined with a poor road layout and condition of the streets, and lack of mains drains services, led to another drag on investment. So lots of the homes were let out all year by absentee landlords at low rents and thus it attracted the poor with consequent results of deprivation and social problems. A kind of vicious circle. But there is now investment taking place, with mains drains installed and a lot of improvements to the roadways, pavements and houses etc. So things definatly looking up.

[JimH]

Before anyone says anything about Essex I implore them to watch The Joy of Essex by Jonathan Meades. There is a piss poor copy of it here https://youtu.be/kzNSOhGcQts

 

I don't really do telly but this is one of the best television programmes I have seen for a very long time. The final few minutes on the subject of planning are brilliant.

[trigger]

At long last the car has now gone. 

[somewhatfoolish]

Razor blades or restoration?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Probably going to reappear on eBay for thousands as a "barn* find"

[gnorwebthgimi]

Only just saw this, it's a nice kitesurfing beach there, so I have been passed that car. It was in pretty bad shape. The police patrol to find out what you are up to and it's the nearest thing the UK has to the us projects

[Richard_FM]

I heard that many of the houses in jaywick were built from wood that ford workers salvaged from crates used to ship over components from Detroit to Dagenham.

until a few years ago I hadn’t heard of the town, my brother mentioned a while back that it looked like a run down American city with the wooden houses & masses of cabling on overhead poles.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I'd love to know the story behind this, including where it's now heading. 

[Amishtat]

Where it's heading? 

[bunglebus]

My grandparents lived in Jaywick, on the Tudor estate (Tudor Green in fact). It was a peaceful place, many happy memories. Been to the seafront a few times and it felt perfectly safe, although we used to go to Clacton more often, as they had a beach hut there. There are many places I'd feel far worse about visiting or living in.

[trigger]

Seeing as the locals have been moaning about the car and that the police are there I'd imagine its gone to a police compound but it is showing as taxed and insured so who knows?! 

[barrett]

Bit of a weird one - the owner (or somebody) has placed an advert in our latest issue stating this car has just been stolen (from its position on the sea front at Jaywick) and asking for information leading to its return. Just wondering if anybody had been down there since last March and noticed if the car had actually been returned since it was removed? I mean, if it's taxed and insured there is no cause for it to have been removed in the first place, but I'm wondering if this is a genuine thing or if it's somebody making some sort of strange point about it being impounded, or something else that doesn't make sense. I know stolen classics get pretty wide publicity online now so has anybody heard anything about this car being taken recently??