The Tendring Peninsula, which takes its name from the old Tendring Hundred, has a rich and varied heritage ranging from prehistoric remains to medieval churches and elegant Victorian villas. It was settled by successive waves of invading Romans, Angles, Saxons and Vikings. Among the many attractive villages in the District are Thorpe-le-Soken and Great Bentley - the latter reputed to have the largest village green in England.

The Tendring District has a wealth of heritage sites. Some examples are the 16th and 17th Century Cottages grouped around the 15th Century Parish Church at Ardleigh or see the rich stone carvings at the Church of St Mary in Lawford. There is a disused trading quay at Beaumont-cum-Moze.

Visit the attractive village of St Osyth with its Augustan Priory ruins and 16th Century tithe barn and bishops lodgings. The attractive old town of Harwich where Henry VIII and Elizabeth I once visited is also worth paying a visit.

You may have seen the round brick built structures known as Martello Towers dotted along our coastline. These towers were built between 1805 and 1812 and there were 105 in total sited along the coast of the South and East of England. We are fortunate to have 6 surviving towers in Tendring and for more information on their history and their location, please download the following information sheet. Tendring Martello Towers (pdf)

Don't forget to visit our Our Essex Sunshine Coast website via our Tourism and Travel page which is packed with ideas and information for visitors to our area.

Properties Open to the Public

(Please check opening times and admission prices with museums)

Essex has over forty museums, from small community museums to those with collections of national and international importance. Please go to the Essex Museums Guide (pdf) for further information.

You can also find out about many of Essex's museums on the East of England Sense of Place Essex website. There you will find over 10,000 digitised images and supplementary information from the collections of over 25 Essex museums.

You may also be interested to see what work the Heritage and Conservation team undertake - why not visit their page - Heritage and Conservation

Some of the above links will open adobe acrobat pdf documents and you will need the free adobe acrobat reader software to open it.

For any other information, please contact the Tourist Information Centre on 01255 686633.