16
Copped Hall

A chance to see restoration in progress: Palladian mansion of 1753-8, burnt in 1917, asset stripped in 1950. The Hall and gardens were saved from massive development schemes in 1995 by the purchase of the freehold by the specially formed Copped Hall Trust. Architect Alan Cox, who helped rescue the mansion, leads the special tours to show how the hall and gardens are being brought back from extreme dereliction.

The Abbots of Waltham lived at Copped Hall from 1350. Henry VIII took the building from them and his daughter Mary Tudor lived there before she became queen. Her sister, Elizabeth I, gave the estate to Sir Thomas Hennage. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream was first performed there in 1594. The estate later passed to the Sackvilles who sold the estate in 1701. Many items of furniture that was at Copped Hall can be seen at Knole. The present house was built on a different site to the south east. The mansion was altered in 1775 and in 1895. 

All the gardens can be visited,  including a large rock garden and a 450 foot long herbaceous border. All parts of the mansion can be visited including a vaulted kitchen and cellars – together with grand stables.

Tour approx two and a half hours, £15 including tea or coffee, home-made cakes and biscuits.

www.coppedhalltrust.org.uk

To book, call the Mercury Theatre on 01206 573948
or book on-line at www.mercurytheatre.co.uk. 

Other nearby properties:

The Abbey, Coggeshall
Bardfield Vineyard

Back to location map