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manor: site
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History of the site of Copthall School, Mill Hill
Copthall school has featured large on this section of the website. This current page starts with excerpts from various publications to focus on the site before it became a school, when it was in the lands of Copt Hall Manor, owned by Nicoll family, who lived at Copt Hall House. Then follow various fascinating anecdotes about the site, the house and its owners.
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By the webmaster, based on museum visits and contributions from former pupils and local residents
The Manor House of Copt Hall
The old manor house of Copt Hall in the early 1800s
from 'An historical, commercial, and descriptive survey of the metropolis of Great-Britain', Volume 4, Edward Wedlake Brayley, James Norris Brewer, Joseph Nightingale, printed by W. Wilson, for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, 1816
Page Street is the name bestowed on a small hamlet which lies in a valley between Mill Hill and the church of Hendon. The most conspicuous object here is Copt Hall, the residence of Thomas Nicoll, Esq. the representative of an ancient family which has possessed considerable landed property in this parish from a very early period.
This house was built by Randall Nicoll, an ancestor of its present possessor, in 1637. The front, which remains unaltered, and which looks upon an extensive lawn, skirted by ornamental plantations, and shaded with venerable trees, is a fine specimen of the domestic architecture of that age.
from 'The new British traveller', James Dugdale, 1819
Copt Hall, the residence of Thomas Nicholl, Esq. stands conspicuous. It is an old mansion, and the front looks upon an extensive lawn, skirted by plantations and shaded by venerable trees.
from 'Hampstead & District Ramblers' (undated)
Copt Hall house in Page Street, which was added
to the Nicholls' lands in 1603 and had been rebuilt between 1624 and 1637,
[was] greatly altered in the mid 19th century and later converted into flats.
[It]was demolished in 1959.
The last excerpt confirms that I was at Copthall School before it Copt Hall house was demolished. I can confirm that old house was at the top of the hill on the left of the aerial photograph on the buildings page. I vaguely remember a dark and somewhat eerie edifice behind large dark trees. However, it was not on my route home, so I never investigated, which I now very much regret.
The old manor house of Copt Hall, 1868. Image reproduced courtesy of Ms Jane Beaumont,one-time Head teacher of Copthall School. Tap/click the thumbnail to enlarge.
The Dower House of the Nicoll family
contributed by Jon Marsh in February 2012
A dower house is one intended as the residence of a widow, typically near the main house on her late husband's estate.
The next house to Edmundo Ross further up Page Street was Featherstone House, which is thought to have been the Dower House of the Nicoll family. Featherstone House was (and is?) on the corner of Page Street and Wise Lane and was at one time owned by Claude Grahame-White, the famous aviator who had his works hangers at Hendon Aerodrome.
The crest of the Nicoll family
The school badge was almost based on the crest of the Nicoll family who lived in the manor of Copt Hall. Yet internet searches on the Nicoll crest return crests for several Nicoll families which bear no relationship to the badge of the school. It would seem that these sites - which are money-making ones - do not show the full story.
The school crest/badge for Copthall County Grammar School, taken from the 1957 year book
Enamelled prefect's badge showing the school crest in colour
Both images courtesy of Christine Tolton, formerly Christine Culley
The school badges of the 1950s can also be seen as blazer badges on the school uniform page. Their colours were the same as those shown in the above prefect's badge
Historical anecdotes
Staffing at the manor of Copt Hall
contributed by Christopher Hoefkens, family recollections
My great grandparents lived in Ivy Cottage on the corner of Page Street and Bunns Lane and they worked at Copthall Shool. Great grandfather was a coachman and later head gardener at the Copt Hall house. At least one of their six children also worked at the House for a while. Ivy Cottage was knocked down and replaced by an office block of John Laing's [there in my time in the 1950s - webmaster] which in turn was demolished for a housing estate.
Was Copt Hall haunted?
contributed by Alan Start, experience and comment
When I roamed around the Copt Hall site in the 1950s, the old house was said to be haunted, but I guess it was really homeless men who frequently inhabited such buildings and frightened children off.
Celebrities in the Copthall area
contributed by Sally Lawson (formerly Sally Porte)
At one stage, Edmundo Ross OBE (the bandleader who died in October 2011 aged 101) lived in Wise Lane, practically opposite the entrance to Copthall, and he would often stop and talk to a group of girls. He always showed a great interest in what we were doing at school, and told us, "Do value your education. It's something nobody can every take away from you". How very true.
contributed by Jon Marsh in February 2012
Edmundo Ross lived in Edritt House in Page Street (not in Wise Lane). The next house to Edmundo Ross further up Page Street was Featherstone House, which is thought to have been the Dower House of the Nicoll family. Featherstone House was (and is) on the corner of Page Street and Wise Lane and was at one time owned by Claude Grahame-White, the famous aviator who had his works hangers at Hendon Aerodrome. Two cottages below Featherstone House were demolished in 1935 when Copthall Grammar School was built.
(I went to Hendon County School, but frequently cycled to Copthall to meet various girls to walk them home along Bunns Lane and Flower Lane to Mill Hill Broadway.)
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