Copped Hall

www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/

The remains of a mid C18 garden by Edward Conyers and Sir Roger Newdigate, beside late C19 gardens by Charles Eamer Kempe, set within a C16 deer park that was extended by Lancelot Brown in the mid C18 and further developed in the C19.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Copped Hall lies close to the towns of Loughton and Epping on the north-west side of the junction between the M25 and the M11. The c 142ha site enjoys a rural valley setting bounded by farmland to the north, east, and west and by Crown Hill road in Epping Forest to the south. The remains of the Hall stand in a commanding position on the top of a hill, the ground falling away to the west, south, and east, making the Hall visibly from some distance, particularly from the south-east. The M25 cuts across the southern end of the site, dividing the open parkland from the wooded warren on the south boundary.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

The principal entrance to Copped Hall is off Crown Hill in Epping Forest on the southern boundary of the park. The twin single-storey Georgian Crown Hill Lodges, built in cream brick with stone dressings (possibly by James Wyatt, listed grade II), flank gates which stand c 1km south of the Hall and mark the beginning of a long drive running north through woodland known as The Warren. The drive, now carried on a bridge over the M25, emerges from The Warren into open parkland to arrive at the east front of the Hall. A second, late C19 drive enters the park c 600m west-north-west of the Hall beside a two-storey brick, render, and tile cottage. The drive runs east and then turns south to pass the stable block and arrive at the east front. Further C19 lodges and a drive are located c 1.6km east of the Hall, outside the boundary of the park, the drive now (2000) a tarmac road.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING

Copped Hall (listed grade II) is a three-storey country mansion built in brick with stone dressings. It is currently (2000) a shell with no roof, doors, or windows. The Hall was built by John Sanderson for Sir John Conyers from 1752 onwards and was embellished internally by James Wyatt for John II in c 1775. The C18 building replaced a C16 hall built by Sir Thomas Heneage, probably incorporating earlier fabric, which lay c 200m north-west of the new hall. Further alterations to the Georgian house were made by Charles Eamer Kempe for Ernest James Wythes at the end of the C19, when an additional north wing was added and a free-standing great conservatory built off the south-west corner of the Hall, together with an elaborate terraced architectural formal garden to the west. The interior of Copped Hall was destroyed by fire in 1917 and much of the architectural materials removed and sold in the mid C20.

Adjacent to the north front is a Racquets Court (listed grade II), built of roughcast brick with a grey slate roof possibly by Charles Eamer Kempe in 1905. Immediately to the east of the Racquets Court stand the stables and service offices, the stables currently (2000) being restored for public viewing. Beyond these, c 200m to the north of Copped Hall is the estate yard, the buildings of which have been converted into private dwellings.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS

The garden lies to the west and north-west of the Hall, entered via a small enclosed courtyard off the south front, which in the late C19 linked the Hall to the conservatory. Immediately to the west of the Hall are the remains of the elaborate formal and sculptural garden created by Kempe in 1895-6 in the Italian style, which is well illustrated in Country Life articles published in 1910. Below the remains of the garden terrace attached to the west front is a grass terrace containing a few mature trees and Irish yew. The terrace is bounded to the west by a north/south axial path terminated by the remains of garden pavilions. From the Hall a path runs west through the terrace and extends beyond it as a raised causeway (listed grade II) terminating in a set of semicircular steps and bastion overlooking the west park. The causeway, originally balustraded and decorated with obelisks and statuary, is built of brick, faced with squared and coursed limestone. To the north and south of this raised path, and below the main terrace, lie two sunken garden areas, now (2000) laid to grass with a few young trees, which replace the elaborate parterres with central fountain basins, complex borders, and many garden ornaments laid out by Kempe.

Leading north-west from Kempe's formal area is an arboretum developed on the site of the garden of the C16 house, bordered to the east by King Henry's yew walk, a recently replanted (2000) feature from the C16 garden. Within this area is a rock garden c 300m north-north-west of the Hall, created by Newdigate and John Conyers in the mid C18 on the site of the cellars of the old hall they had just demolished (Alan Cox pers comm, 2000). The arboretum replaces the complex and extensive formal gardens associated with the C16 house. On the west side of the rock garden are the remains of a late C19 yew-enclosed rose garden (OS 1870), now filled with trees. The remains of paths and yew-lined walks run through the rest of the woodland area, one of which leads to the walled kitchen garden c 250m to the north-west of the Hall.

PARK

The park surrounds Copped Hall on all sides and is partly under arable production and partly under grass, with few surviving parkland trees. An ornamental lake lies c 350m east of the Hall. A circuit walk runs around the lake, at the northern end of which there is a small island on which stands a small derelict Arts and Crafts-style cottage. A lake is shown in this position on the Eyre survey of 1751, although it did not reach its present size until the early C20, possibly being extended by Ernest James Wythes following his late C19 work on the gardens.

The park is enclosed to the west by a long perimeter plantation known as The Selvage, which appears on maps following Lancelot Brown's involvement at Copped. At its northern end The Selvage joins up with Rookery Wood in the north-west corner of the park. Enclosed within Rookery Wood is a large serpentine pond, shown as a large rectangular body of water on the 1751 Eyre survey and up until 1837, after which it is mapped in its present sinuous form. Rookery Wood looks onto the oldest section of the park, where the C16 deer park stood.

Beyond the open areas of the south park, the land isolated by the building of the M25 is entirely covered by woodland, known as The Warren and shown as such on all the maps associated with Copped Hall. The Warren is cut through with paths and rides and is now (2000) part of Epping Forest which joins its southern boundary.

KITCHEN GARDEN

The mid C18 walled kitchen garden (listed grade II) lies c 300m to the north-west of the Hall, on a site which slopes down to the west. The garden is entered through ornamental gates in the central of the south and west walls, the south gates being contemporary with the building of the garden while the west gates were a later addition. The ground is laid to grass and contains a large range of derelict C19 glasshouses in the north-west quarter. A central circular dipping pool survives in the centre of the garden. The walled garden was built in this position in the mid C18 under the direction of John Sanderson, at the same time as the present hall was built.

REFERENCES

J Farmer, The History of ... Waltham Abbey (1735), engraving

Country Life, 28 (29 October 1910), pp 610-16; (5 November 1910), pp 646-53; 34 (15 November 1913), p 688

Gardener's Magazine, (1 January 1916)

Victoria History of the County of Essex V, (1966), pp 122-4

H Colvin and J Harris (eds), The Country Seat (1970), pp 18-29

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), p 221

J Harris, The Artist and the Country House (1979)

N Pevsner and E Radcliffe, The Buildings of England: Essex (1979), p 174

M Binney and A Hills, Elysian Gardens (1979), pp 46-7

R Cassidy, Copped Hall in its Heyday (1986) [pictorial record of house and garden 1906-17]

M Stavridi, Master of Glass: Charles Eamer Kempe (1988), pp 144-5

R Cassidy, Copped Hall: a short history (1999 edn)

Maps

Copy of a c 1590 estate map of Copped, now hanging in Hatfield House, Herts

Edward John Eyre, Survey of the parish of Epping, 1751 (D/DQ 43/2), (Essex Record Office)

J Chapman and P Andre, A map of the county of Essex from an actual survey ..., 1777 (Essex Record Office)

Draft survey of the estate of Copped Hall, c 1837 (D/DHf P12), (Essex Record Office)

Tithe map for Epping parish, 1840 (D/CT 131), (Essex Record Office)

Tithe map for Waltham Abbey parish, 1842 (D/CT 381), (Essex Record Office)

OS Surveyor's drawings, 1799 (British Library Maps)

OS 6" to 1 mile:

1st edition published 1881

2nd edition published 1897

OS 25" to 1 mile:

1st edition published 1870

2nd edition published 1897

3rd edition published 1920

Illustrations

William Watts, engraving of the house in parkland setting, 1781 (Essex Record Office)

Archival items

Documents relating to the period 1740s/50s, including Newdigate sketches are held in the Essex Record Office (D/DW).

Catalogue of documents held in the Huntington Library, California relating to Webster's period of ownership (Essex Record Office: T/A 908/1).

Description written: January 2001

Amended: April 2001

Register Inspector: EMP

Edited: September 2001