Mock Tudor, like Marmite, is adored and reviled in equal measure. But whether you love or hate that tell-tale black-and-white half-timbering the style is making a comeback. From one-off country piles to modest mass-market blocks of flats, new-build Tudor-style homes are sprouting up throughout Britain. Despite advances in building techniques and the easy availability of new materials such as steel and glass, many builders are choosing to turn their backs on the 21st century and ape the romantic style of a bygone age.

It is not the first time that so-called “Tudorbethan” has made a comeback. The Victorians revived it for a time, as did the builders of 1930s suburbia. Although it is about 500 years since the Tudors started building their houses with timber frames, steeply pitched roofs and leaded window panes, as the economy staggers on and the world seems a less welcoming place we cannot seem to get enough of their quaint and reassuring character.

“The style is just incredibly homely,” says Sue Culling, who lives in a 1930s Tudor-style home in Esher, Surrey. “These are really pretty houses with lots of character. But they are also light and airy and perfect for family life.” Culling, 38, a full-time mother, shares the aptly named four-bedroom Tudor House with her partner, Anthony Gentle, 44, an acoustic consultant, and their two children Emily, 6, and Edward, 20 months. Their house is a fine example of the many mock-Tudor homes that emerged in the suburbs in between the wars as builders borrowed from the past to add character to the sprawl of new homes.

For the family, it is the details that turn their house into a home. They love the windows, which have bevelled frames and diamond-patterned panes, as well as the familiar black-and-white half-timbering over the exposed bricks. “You couldn't get a cosier house,” Culling says.

That is the feeling that Adrian Seabridge, a 57-year-old civil engineer, tried to recreate when he built his own Tudor-style country house near Stafford. “I think that the style is quintessentially English,” he says. “It is pleasing to the eye and welcoming. The design makes the house look weighty and comfortable in its setting and the materials such as the mellowness of the oak makes it warm and inviting.” Gardener's Cottage, in Wolseley Bridge, was completed in 2005 but already looks firmly anchored to the landscape. The house, which took 15 months to build, is the result of Seabridge's close attention to detail. Seabridge, who shares his home with his wife, Robina, 55, sought out local Cheshire stone, green oak and salvaged flagstones for his floor.

But there is a limit to his quest for authenticity. The four-bedroom double-glazed house comes with three bathrooms with modern plumbing, a vast kitchen/breakfast room and an eight-person hot tub. As he says: “You can build in that style but using modern techniques so that you get the best of both worlds.”

Some developers have taken the marriage of ancient and modern to its conclusion: Hillreed has just completed The Orchard, a Tudor-style development of eight townhouses and 15 flats in Maidstone, Kent. The thought of a Tudor apartment block, complete with newly distressed roof tiles, might make purists shudder. But they are there for a reason. Dean Markall, sales and marketing director at Hillreed, says: “A lot of homeowners are more comfortable wearing this than the contemporary alternative. They prefer the look of an older property because they think it has more character.”

The idea of decorating new homes with ancient-looking flourishes is hardly novel. Although there are very few original buildings left that date to the Tudor era, between 1485 and 1603, the style of building that emerged in that period has spawned more than a century's worth of copies and adaptations. The first great revival came courtesy of the Victorians, who in the late 19th century reacted to the Industrial Revolution as well as to the Classical style of the previous century, and returned to a more homegrown way of building. The Victorian Tudor home could be either imposing and elaborate or a simple throwback to a vernacular English farmhouse, with the crucial difference that the wooden beams were no longer part of the supporting structure but were there purely for decorative purposes.

The style might inspire nostalgia, but not everyone is a fan. Developers such as Peter Owen, managing director of Grenville Homes, recoils from the term Mock Tudor, although he has borrowed from the period to add character to houses such as Marchwood House in Leatherhead, Surrey. “Stick-ons which are not an integral part of the building can be tricky,” he says. “You have to be very careful that the property doesn't become naff. You do this by combining the half-timbering look with other elements of the Tudor period such as protruding gables, rather than simply sticking on some timber. Good-quality materials are also essential.”

Where there is evidence of fine craftsmanship, Tudor flourishes can add a premium to a sale price, according to Lindsay Cuthill, of Savills. However, “done badly, with a few beams stuck on, I should think the result would be a discount.” Whether your Tudor house is 16th century, Victorian, 1930s or new-build, its comforting qualities are what ultimately explain the appeal.

Gardener's Cottage: £1.55 million via Savills , 0121-713 4000

Tudor House: £750,000 via Savill s, 01372 461900

Flats at The Orchard cost from £149,000 to £279,000, hillreed.co.uk

Marchwood: £2.85 million, grenvillehomes.co.uk , 01372 360078

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