1845 - Development of Dovercourt

The coming of the railway also brought developments in Dovercourt mainly due to the initiatives of John Bagshaw, a former East India merchant. Bagshaw, after an unsuccessful attempt to be elected in 1841, was returned as MP for Harwich in 1847.

Bagshaw built himself a mansion called Cliff House, which had extensive grounds. At that time there was open country between the lighthouse at Harwich and the Green at Dovercourt. He therefore bought land at Lower Dovercourt for development as a 'new town'.

He built Orwell Terrace, laid out the cliff slopes as far as Mill Lane and constructed a promenade as far as Dovercourt lighthouse at a cost of £10,000. In the park surrounding his home he found a chalybeate spring, reputed to possess medicinal properties, and decided to make Dovercourt a place to which the gentry would come to take water. On the site still called the 'Spa' he built a pump room, museum, reading room and library. At the bottom of Orwell Terrace he built the Assembly Rooms.

Unfortunately this all left Bagshaw in severe financial difficulties and he was declared bankrupt in 1859. He died in 1861 after the contents of his house and the Spa had been sold and his estate broken up. After remaining empty for some years, Cliff House was demolished in 1909 and the Spa suffered the same fate some eleven years later. Orwell Terrace is now John Bagshaw's chief memorial.