Comarques

This is a large, substantial house dating from the mid-18th century, with extensions added in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with a roof of handmade red clay tiles. The original house has a double range plan facing southeast, with two internal stacks on each return. A two-story extension with a hipped roof was added in the early 19th century to the left of the front range, and a flat-roofed single-story extension followed in the 20th century. A further 20th-century extension, both two-story and single-story, faces northwest at the rear.

The front of the house has a six-window range of early 19th century sash windows with octagonal panes of crown glass, set within original openings with gauged flat arches. The first floor features a central Venetian window with similar glazing, two panes of which have ogee heads, accentuated by a triglyph frieze. Dormers in the attic contain four-light sashes with moulded pediments, and a central Diocletian window with similar octagonal glazing, two panes having ogee heads, all within a round arch of gauged brick. The central front door has eight recessed octagonal panels, a fanlight with radial glazing bars, a gilt lionhead keystone, and a doorcase with attached Ionic columns with gilt capitals, a pulvinated frieze, and a dentilated pediment. Rusticated brick quoins are present, along with a band of rubbed brick above the first-floor window heads. Moulded brick cornices and a plain parapet complete the facade, punctuated by five cast iron roundels above the first-floor window level. The left extension features three 20th-century reproductions of the original sashes on its ground floor. A dogtooth eaves course is visible on the 19th-century extension. The rear range is hipped at the right end of its roofline. The rear elevation features, on the ground floor, one 18th-century splayed bay of sashes (12 lights), an early 19th-century sash (8 + 12 lights), another 18th-century sash (12 lights), and a 20th-century reproduction, with three 18th-century sashes (12 lights) and three 20th-century reproductions above. A 6-panel door is present, protected by a moulded canopy on scrolled brackets. A plaque above the door commemorates the author Enoch Arnold Bennett, who lived at the house between 1913 and 1921. A brick inscribed "W. Whatey 1755" is incorporated into the right return, likely marking the master builder and the construction date. It is believed that the house was named after Captain Comarque, who occupied the site in 1717, although this information was reported incorrectly in P. Morant’s 1768 history of Essex. Historical records indicate a connection to Earl Attlee, corroborated by an Essex Review article, though conflicting with the official biography. The property was also associated with the solicitors’ firm Druces and Attlee, the firm of Clement Attlee's father.