In his 1862 diary (the only one remaining of his life in England) CS Clarke was a regular visitor to his elder brother John Sanders Clarke’s estate, Peatling Hall in Peatling Parva, about 12 miles from Leicester.
This property was part of the estate of Elizabeth Clarke, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. She bequeathed the property to her cousin John Clarke, who had been High Sherriff of Leicestershire in 1788. Also included in her estate was New Parks, future family home of the Clarke family. Despite the seemingly close connection between this Leicestershire Clarke family and that of CS Clarke, there is no obvious genetic ties between them.
John Clarke’s son (also John) moved into Peatling Hall with his wife and family in around 1813. When his banking ventures went wrong he was forced to sell off a large number of his numerous estates, New Parks among them (see New Parks). However a family trust allowed him to buy back Peatling Hall and he remained living there until his death in 1858.
The property was purchased by John Sanders Clarke in 1860 when it was put up for auction. It was described as “a capital FAMILY MANSION … containing spacious dining, drawing and breakfast rooms, six best bed rooms with two dressing rooms and five servants rooms, stables, coach house, hot house, shrubbery, good walled garden in capital bearing, fish pond, plantations, Cottage for groom’s residence and every requisite for a family of respectability.” It’s currently unknown how long John Sanders Clarke owned the property for.
It is still a well looked after estate in the Leicestershire countryside and can be located on Google Street View.