Comarques is an 18th-century

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

Thorpe-le-Soken Thorpe-le-Soken is a village and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England located east of Colchester, west of Walton-on-the-Naze, Frinton-on-Sea and north of Clacton-on-Sea. History Since 2002, archaeological investigations ahead ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. It has been attributed to the architect,

Sir Robert Taylor Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) was an English architect and sculptor who worked in London and the south of England. Early life Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stonemason and sculptor, ...

. Named after Captain Comarque, a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

refugee who owned the estate in the early 18th century, the house is in the Queen Anne style. The author

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...

lived at Comarques between 1913 and 1921. There is a tradition that

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

lived at the house as a child, but

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

does not support this claim. Comarques is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

Captain Comarque was a French

refugee who, along a number of others, settled in

in the early 18th century.

confirms that he was resident in the area in 1717 but that he did not build the house.

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, dan ...

notes the attribution to

, an architect who worked mainly in London and the South-East of England. The building carries a brick

datestone A datestone is typically an embedded stone with the date of engraving and other information carved into it. They are not considered a very reliable source for dating a house, as instances of old houses being destroyed and rebuilt (with the old da ...

for 1755, with the name W. Whatey, who was probably the main building contractor for the house. Local tradition suggests that the house was the childhood home of Clement Attlee, later prime minister, having been bought by his father, Henry, in the late 19th century, and this tradition is repeated in some sources. However, Historic England notes that Attlee's official biographer does not support the claim and suggests that Henry Attlee, a solicitor, was involved in the sale of the estate rather than its purchase. In 1913, Comarques was bought by Arnold Bennett, then one of England's most successful novelists, from his considerable literary earnings. Soon after the purchase, Bennett wrote to an American correspondent; "we now possess an early Queen Anne house near the Essex coast and in February are going to install ourselves there definitely for everlasting". During his tenure, which lasted until his separation from his wife in 1921, Bennett amassed a considerable art collection, which was displayed at the house. The estate was later owned by

Albert Fairfax, 12th Lord Fairfax of Cameron Albert Kirby Fairfax, 12th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (23 June 1870 – 4 October 1939), was an American-born Scottish Representative Peer and politician in the British House of Lords. Early life Born at Northampton, in Largo, Prince George's Coun ...

. In 2010 the house was on the market.

Architecture and description

The house is of two storeys, with attics, in

Flemish-bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by ...

red brick. One brick carries the date 1755. The style is Queen Anne. There are extensions from the 19th and 20th centuries. The house has seven bays and

notes the distinctive window style, which has been called

Chinese Chippendale Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779) was a cabinet-maker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs in a trade catalogue titled ''The Gentleman and Cab ...

, and which is the main grounds for the attribution to Taylor. Comarques is a

Footnotes

References

Sources

* * * {{cite book , last = Jenkins , first = Roy , authorlink = Roy Jenkins , title = Mr. Attlee: an interim biography , year = 1948 , url = https://www.worldcat.org/title/mr-attlee-an-interim-biography-by-roy-jenkins/oclc/1141185790 , publisher = Melbourne , location = London , oclc = 1141185790 Houses completed in the 18th century Grade II* listed houses Grade II* listed buildings in Essex