Nothing much has changed...

...in the last hundred years.

At least not here in Frinton. I'm sure this lovely garden hasn't. It's just yards from the level crossing which is the only 'official' way into the town, effectively cutting off entry and exit whenever a train wishes to pass to or from the neighbouring town of Walton on the Naze.

Frinton has been on the wrong end of many jokes in recent years. Until only a few years ago, there were no pubs there, there are certainly no fast-food shops and I can't think of a fish and chip shop either. Was it Max Miller who proclaimed 'Harwich for the continent and Frinton for the incontinent'?

It does have an apparently well-respected goff club (sic) and the tennis club was once second only to Wimbledon in it's status, attracting stars from all over. It still has a tennis week, but I don't think the highest strata of the sport attend anymore.

It wouldn't still be here if it hadn't been for an Act of Parliament in 1903 which called for the cliffs to be shored up and defended from the ravages of the sea. But since then it has had many notable residents and visitors including Douglas Fairbanks, Ursula Bloom, and Jack Watling, Churchill rented a house and Edward VIII played tennis. The Frinton Summer Theatre is open again now - stars who began their careers here include Vanessa Redgrave, David Suchet and Linda Bellingham.

But most of the above is in the past tense, are things about to change in Frinton? Not if the Frintonians have anything to do with it. They protested long and hard to keep the old wooden manned-crossing gates, but Network Rail removed them while they slept. Come election time, many a No to Europe sign will appear on front windows and gates. These residents, many of whom live in beautiful art deco houses that wouldn't look amiss in a pre-war copy of Country Life are, little by little being gnawed at by the 'outside world'.

It will invade one day, but not just yet.