Facts about Brightlingsea
Brightlingsea Sports
The town has an active recreational boating scene. Brightlingsea Sailing Club runs an active competitive sailing programme and has produced many champions at the international and Olympic level. The club is one of the oldest, largest dinghy and certainly friendliest sailing clubs in the East of England.Ideally located for local or distance sailing, Colne Yacht Club was the first UK club to offer sail training in the use of keelboats to its members. Brightlingsea is also a popular destination for visiting yacht clubs and the CYC clubhouse provides shower facilities 24/7 in partnership with Brightlingsea Harbour Commissioners.
General Info
Brightlingsea is a coastal town and an electoral ward in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is situated between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, at the mouth of the River Colne, on Brightlingsea Creek. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 8,076. Its traditional industries included fishery and shipbuilding. With the decline of these industries, the town is largely a dormitory town for Colchester. Brightlingsea is a limb of Sandwich, one of the Cinque Ports. The town retains an active ceremonial connection with the Cinque Ports, electing a Deputy from a guild of Freemen. Brightlingsea was for many years twinned with French oyster fishery port Marennes, Charente-Maritime, but the relationship fell into disuse. In the mid-1990s, the port of Brightlingsea was used for the export of live animals for slaughter, leading to a protest campaign dubbed “The Battle of Brightlingsea”.
