Copped Hall

The Abbots of Waltham lived at an earlier 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 Heneage. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was first performed there in 1594. The estate later passed to the Sackvilles who sold it in 1701. Many items of furniture that were at Copped Hall can be seen at Knole.

The present mansion was built from 1752-58 by the architect John Sanderson for the owner John Conyers. The mansion was altered in 1775 and again in 1895 when it was also extended for the then owner, E.J. Wythes. The mansion was burnt in 1917 and asset stripped from 1950. The M25 was built through a corner of the Grade II* listed landscaped park in 1980.

The mansion is superbly sited on high ground at the end of a ridge. Like many similar houses, it was built on an ancient site of human habitation. Recorded history starts in the 13th century when there was a mansion on the site. The Abbots of Waltham held the property from 1350 until 1537 when Henry VIII took it from them. Elizabeth I gave the estate to Sir Thomas Heneage who built a substantial mansion incorporating parts of the earlier building. Almost all of this structure was pulled down in 1748. The present house was built on a site a few hundred yards to the southeast.