The effects of the First World War were wide and long lasting, not just for those who were directly involved in it, one way or another , but for the architectural heritage of Britain. The deaths of so many sons of the upper class meant that estates that had been run so successfully up to 1914 were plunged into uncertainty. Great mansions were sold off or demolished. A different fate befell one great house and its astonishing gardens in Essex, as some clippings found among the papers of the late Peter Haining, who must have passed the site regularly on his route to and from his Essex home, tell.
Today, for those driving clockwise along the M25 the roofless ruins of Copped Hall, situated on the edge of woodland just south-east of Epping, are an intriguing sight. For most of the War the mansion, which had replaced a more interesting Elizabethan house and gardens in 1753, was a cherished family home. The elaborate gardens, a late Victorian theatrical tour de force by C.E Kempe, better known for his stained glass designs, were remarkable enough to feature in a lengthy article in
Country Life in 1910. But seven years later, on one night in November 1917 all was to change.
