Thorpe-le-Soken


Thorpe-le-Soken is a village and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is located east of Colchester, west of Walton-on-the-Naze and Frinton-on-Sea, and north of Clacton-on-Sea. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 2,273.

History

Since 2002, archaeological investigations ahead of construction work have uncovered traces of Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, early Neolithic and Roman rural settlements.
Thorpe-le-Soken's contiguous history can be traced back to Saxon times. In, King Æthelstan confirmed the grant of Eduluesnaesa – combined estate of Kirby, Thorpe and Walton – to St Paul’s. Soken meaning a jurisdiction with separate taxation and managerial responsibilities.
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. 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, and his wife Evelyn Byng, Viscountess Byng of Vimy, who relandscaped the gardens.
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. The house is now home to the Adams family.
This was also the home of the famous Midlands author Arnold Bennett just before and during the First World War.
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.

Facilities

Thorpe-le-Soken has Rolph CofE Primary School in the High Street, and the Thorpe Campus of Tendring Technology College in Landermere Road. The village is served by Thorpe-le-Soken railway station. The village had a post office at 29 High Street, but this closed and was converted into a house. The village hosts several shops, pubs and eateries.

Notable residents