Library, Alexandra Road, Cleethorpes - 01472 323 111 cleetic@nelincs.gov.uk

Cleethorpes is a town and unparished area in North East Lincolnshire, England, situated on the estuary of the Humber. It has a population of 31,853 and is a seaside resort.

Cleethorpes developed as a fishing village. By the time of the 1801 census the population was 284. The 1820s saw the first developments of Cleethorpes as a health holiday resort, with sea-bathing and the taking of medicinal waters becoming fashionable. By 1831 the population had increased to 497.

In 1842 the Cleethorpes Enclosure Bill was enacted. 2,050 acres (8.3 km²) of land were divided between land owners and eight new roads developed. In 1848 Cleethorpes was described as "...much resorted to as a bathing-place, for which it is highly eligible; the air is pure, the scenery good and besides a few lodging-houses and smaller inns, there is a large hotel, built some years since, on an eminence embracing extensive views of the sea, the Humber, and the Yorkshire coast. Many of the population are employed in the oyster-fisheries."

The resort expanded following the linking of the town by railway with the industrial towns of Yorkshire. Cleethorpes Pier opened in 1873, and the promenade in 1885. Cleethorpes with Thrunscoe was constituted a Local Board of Health District in 1873, and under the Local Government Act of 1894 it became an urban district.

The original village is Clee (place of clay). A thorpe was an outlying farmstead so there may possibly have been someone living here before the 17th century when the name "Cleethorpes" first appeared.