The Trust had been assembling an archive on Copped Hall and its estate long before it purchased the mansion and gardens. The archive covers all aspects – including architectural details, planting, information on the people involved, etc...

The Trust welcomes any information (or objects) relating to Copped Hall whether it be verbal, photographic, drawings, etc... People should write to the Trust Administrator at 112 Torriano Avenue, London NW5 2SD.

Our educational activities go from strength to strength – with drawing classes, study days, lectures, singing workshops, gardening tuition, creative activities for primary school pupils and even 18th century dancing tuition from the Covent Garden Minuet - particularly the study days over the next two years.

The three study days this year were very popular. William Tyler attracted an audience of 50 people and Peter Lawrence 59. The October study day with Nigel and Joyce Gervis has sold 42 tickets to date. The drawing classes had a varied attendance with two of the earlier ones under-booked but with many people turned away as the later classes sold out.

Our two lectures this autumn at Theydon Bois Village Hall are concerned with matters close at home. John Shepherd will discuss the current archaeological investigations on the site of the Elizabethan mansion at Copped Hall and Jeremy Dagley, from the Conservators of Epping Forest, will explain how Epping Forest was saved and the background to the various conservation policies for the Forest.

Alan Cox.

Tickets are available from Alan Cox, 112 Torriano Avenue, London NW5 2SD
Tel: 020 7267 1679 Email: coxalan1@aol.com

William Tyler “The Imperial Country House”
Tuesday 7 June 2011
10.00am for 10.30am start. Cost £25.00
Price includes lunch and coffee or tea on arrival.
We shall explore during our day together, the impact of the Empire on the Country House in England. In doing this, we shall look at the imperial impact on the architectural design of the houses, on the interior furnishings and on the layout and planting of their gardens. Further topics that will be discussed will be the impact of Empire on the cuisine of country houses, and the exotic animals imported into their grounds.
In doing all of this, we shall touch on such diverse subjects as Queen Victoria’s Indian servant, the Moghul architecture of Sezincote House in The Cotswolds, the lemur kept by the Courtaulds at Eltham Palace, the enthusiasm for Japanese water gardens, the introduction of the deadly rhododendron, and the eating of kedgeree at the breakfast table.

Peter Lawrence “The Villages of East London - A Grander Past”
Thursday 11 August 2011
10.00am for 10.30am start. Cost £25.00
Price includes lunch and coffee or tea on arrival.
‘The Villages of East London -A Grander Past’ continues the theme of the wealthy merchants and ship owners who had their country houses in Essex but this time focuses on their places of enterprise and work in the Thameside villages situated on the other side of the River Lee. This study day will also highlight the surviving evidence of that grander past before the villages were overwhelmed by suburbia in the late 19th century.

Nigel Gervis
“The Repair and Upgrading of Traditional Buildings”
Friday 28 October 2011
10.00am for 10.30am start. Cost £25.00
Price includes lunch and coffee or tea on arrival.
Conservation expert, Nigel Gervis, will illustrate ,with a whole range of case studies, how traditional buildings can be repaired and upgraded without damaging their fabric or compromising their architecture. The study day will also demonstrate the problems caused by unthinking ‘repairs’ which can cause considerable harm to traditional buildings. Remedies will be shown that are appropriate to these issues in today’s world. This study day is highly relevant to anyone who owns or is responsible for buildings constructed particularly be