Thorpe-le-Soken

Thorpe-le-Soken is a village and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England located west of Walton-on-the-Naze, Frinton-on-Sea and north of Clacton-on-Sea.

Thorpe-le-Soken
Thorpe-le-Soken
Location within Essex
Population1,961 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceTM178223
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townClacton-on-Sea
Postcode districtCO16
PoliceEssex
FireEssex
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament

History

Thorpe-le-Soken's history can be traced back to Saxon times.[2]

There has been a manor house at Thorpe since about 1150. The old manor house, Thorpe Hall, was owned by the Leake family, and rebuilt in the 1820s by the wealthy lawyer J.M. Leake (d. 1862). It was later leased by Frederic Foaker, owner of Sneating Hall at Kirby-le-Soken. Thorpe Hall was the home of Viscount Byng of Vimy (Governor General of Canada 1921–6), and his wife Evelyn Byng, Viscountess Byng of Vimy, who relandscaped the gardens.[3]

Between 1690 and 1720 Thorpe housed a community of several dozen Huguenot refugees fleeing persecution in France, who are thought to have stayed at the large house still called Comarques. (Source—Huguenot Society records) This was also the home of the famous Midlands author Arnold Bennett just before and during the 1st World War. (Source—contemporary issues of Essex County Standard, Arnold Bennett's Correspondence).

The local church, St Michael's, was shown in series 2 episode 4 of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? where comedian Julian Clary traced a family member to the church.[4]

Facilities

Thorpe-le-Soken has Rolph CofE Primary School in the High Street, and the Thorpe Campus of Tendring Technology College (Years 7, 8 and 9) in Landermere Road. The village is served by Thorpe-le-Soken railway station. The village used to have a post office, but this was closed in a round of government cuts.[5] The village hosts several shops, pubs and eateries.[6]

Notable residents
  • Field Marshal Lord Byng of Vimy GCB GCMG MVO (1862–1935), an officer who served with distinction during World War I and as Governor General of Canada, lived in Thorpe-le-Soken during his retirement[7] and died at the now demolished Thorpe Hall.[8] He is buried at the 11th Century Parish Church of St. Leonard in Beaumont-cum-Moze.[9]
  • Sir William Gull (1816 – 1890), Royal physician, and suggested as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders, is buried in St Michael's churchyard.[10]
  • Nigel Henderson (artist) (1 April 1917 – 15 May 1985), artist and photographer.
  • Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) sculptor and artist

References
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  2. Shore, Thomas William (1906), Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race - A Study of the Settlement of England and the Tribal Origin of the Old English People (1st ed.), London, p. 279
  3. "LANDOWNERSHIP: THORPE-LE-SOKEN" (PDF). Victoria County History.
  4. "Thorpe le Soken: Comic Julian films new TV series at Essex church". Thurrock Gazette. 23 August 2005. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  6. "Frinton on Sea, Tendring, Essex, UK - seaside town on the east coast of England". Frinton-on-Sea: Frinton.org. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  7. "Viewing Page 366 of Issue 33348". London-gazette.co.uk. 17 January 1928. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  8. "Tendring District Council Conservation Area Review" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  9. "The United Benefice of Tendring, Little Bentley and Beaumont-cum-Moze". Archived from the original on 7 July 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  10. Eminent persons: Biographies, reprinted from the Times. Vol. 1-6. D. Macmillan. 1893. Retrieved 4 June 2010.

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