Thorpe Hall was a manor house built in the

Georgian style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarchs of the House of Hano ...

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.

History

The Thorpe Manor estate belonged to the

Dean and Chapter of St Paul's The Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral was the titular corporate body of St Paul's Cathedral in London up to the end of the twentieth century. It consisted of the dean and the canons, priests attached to the cathedral who were known as "prebe ...

until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1723 it was bought by Stephen Martin who assumed the name and arms of Leake upon inheriting an estate from Admiral Sir John Leake; it remained in the Leake family – the most recent manor house was built between 1822 and 1825 for John Martin Leake – until 1913 when it was bought by

Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy Field Marshal Julian Hedworth George Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, (11 September 1862 – 6 June 1935) was a British Army officer who served as Governor General of Canada, the 12th since the Canadian Confederation. Known to friends as "Bu ...

whose wife,

Evelyn Byng, Viscountess Byng of Vimy Evelyn Byng, Viscountess Byng of Vimy ( Marie Evelyn Moreton; 11 January 1870 – 20 June 1949), also known as Lady Byng, was the wife of Lord Byng, the 12th Governor General of Canada (1921–26). Biography Born as Marie Evelyn Moreton ...

, laid out the gardens. Viscount Byng died at Thorpe Hall in 1935. It was acquired by the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and then became the Lady Nelson Convalescent Home for employees of

English Electric N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during th ...

in 1951. It was sold to the Ryan Group in 1988 and to Tangram Leisure in 2000. Tangram Leisure demolished the manor and replaced it with a residential spa which was completed in December 2010. Tangram Leisure went into administration in 2012.

References

{{coord, 51.8522, 1.1686, display=title Houses in Essex Thorpe-le-Soken