Meet a Volunteer

Pauline Dalton started volunteering at Copped Hall before the Friends organisation was even formed and has embraced every stage of the project’s development, both practically by helping to clear the house and gardens and administratively as Secretary of the Friends. She was first through the door of the bramble-ravaged Walled Garden, was an early tour leader, and as a keen archaeologist participated in the first dig on the site of the old Tudor mansion. She now concentrates mostly on handling Friends’ membership.

Photo: Iris Newbury

“I first came up to Copped Hall on a Sunday morning in October 1997 – I think I was one of the first volunteers from the general public, if not the first. It was mentioned at a committee meeting of the Epping Society that volunteers were required to get the project of restoring the mansion started. I met Alan Cox on that Sunday and, despite his slight bemused reaction to my visit, was promptly put to work sweeping out the dried-up horse manure from the stable floor. I was hooked from the start and the rest, as it is said, is history.

Like most local folk, I had visited the mansion in the early 1970s when the fields leading up to Copped Hall were a muddy, churned-up mess from the large pigs being kept there. Even more unpleasant were the miserable chickens kept at the Victorian wing end of the mansion. I did not visit again until my initiation as a volunteer.

The Friends of the Copped Hall Trust was formed in the following April; I attended the inaugural meeting and became a Friend. At the start I did a lot in the gardens and when the Trust acquired the Walled Garden in 1999 my daughter, Linda, and I went into it via the small door near the bothy. It was completely overgrown but the size and the wall itself were spectacular. We started by cutting back the swathes of brambles and in the course of this task came across a metal support. I thought we could have found a pear tree walk simply because I could recognise a pear tree! Then many willing hands came down to help.

In the early days volunteers would arrive on a Sunday morning and a list of jobs which needed attention was written up on a blackboard. This was usually Trevor’s [Roberts] task (he was chairman of the Friends then). All hands would be turned to the most important work. In the mansion, clearing the pit under the lift round the back of the mansion was a fascinating project and I set to work together with a new recruit, Andy Newing. After many strenuous months the clearance was, more or less, completed. Looking around for another project we found the ‘tunnel’, which was great fun: filling up one’s bucket, backing out down the passage – keeping the head low! – and tipping the bucket into a wheelbarrow which when full had to be pushed through the cellars, up the ramp, under the billiard room and out to the fields. That was fine until we reached the bends that go around the front door. The rubble here was very heavy clay, far too tough for me, so the much fitter Arnold [Verrall] took the job over (Andy having moved on to pastures new by this time).

I really enjoyed this task even though it was dirty, dark and cramped! It was only when the Trust received an initial donation from Adelaide and Dave Karaskas that it was possible to roof the entrance hall and stairwells which enabled us to, at last, allow the public into this part of the mansion. Later, when the Trust completed works to the wing entrance hall and the corridor below, access could be extended to the cellars and stables. Then I gladly became a tour leader and have continued to be one, though obviously we show visitors a lot more rooms now. I particularly enjoy the fact that every tour is different, largely because the people who visit are so diverse and ask very different questions. Almost every time I take a tour I see something different – a new area opens up but then again a previously open one is closed for new work.

I was more interested in the practical work in the mansion than the administrative side of the Friends, but when the first Secretary of the Friends stepped down, I took over that role. Later, when the Treasurer and membership role was split, I offered to take on the membership side of things and Isobel Burt became Treasurer. Membership has increased fairly slowly over the years, at about 100 new members per year, but now stands at more than 1,000. So there is a fair amount of work keeping up with renewals.

Of course there is a drop-out rate which is difficult to estimate as I make several efforts to keep members renewing. In years when we have been unlucky with the weather on Open Days, then the membership has suffered - we do appear to depend on Open Days to act as a recruitment drive and may at some point need to think of new recruitment initiatives. I feel that the work in the mansion - which I really did enjoy - has changed over the years and it is probably more important for me now to concentrate on maintaining the membership - a lonely but necessary furrow to plough.

There is still so much work to be done that I feel we have only just started! I do think we must be careful not to become stale, particularly on what we offer on Open Days. We need to be appraising the way the public views the project, too.

Finally, I really love our project – I think it is an important part of the local community and feel really privileged to have been and to be practically involved. Long may it last.”