COPERS COPE FARM
By Pat Manning

Part I The Farmhouse

The oldest inhabited house in Beckenham is Copers Cope House at 3 Southend Rd. It is on the corner of Copers Cope Rd, believed a corruption of Cooper's Copse.




The oldest part of the house is at the front and possibly dates from about 1690 according to the nature of the bricks in the old downstairs kitchen, originally the farmhouse of Copers Cope Farm.




On the outside wall, animal footprints can be seen preserved from the time when the bricks were made.
The front gable on the south side is obviously from an earlier time than the adjoining back gable as its bricks are crumbling.

The present owner, Mrs June Kirby, keeps the house in immaculate condition, worthy of a place in a Country Life magazine and she has preserved its historical features, such as the old doors, fireplaces, window seats and the elegant banisters shown here.

The music room on the ground floor

John Cator, born Ross on Wye in 1703, retired from Southwark, where he dealt in timber, to live in Bromley. Here, he and his son John (1728-1806), bought up land from about the year 1757. The Kent map by Andrews, Dury and Herbert shows that John junior owned land at Stumps Hill in 1769 where, in 1773, when he became the Lord of the Manor of Beckenham, he had his mansion built, Beckenham Place. He steadily increased his holdings with the purchase of three adjacent farms, Copers Cope, Foxgrove and Kent House. When Michael Mathew leased Copers Cope Farm for wheat, barley, oats, clover and cattle grazing, an agreement dated 1851 stated that he must not destroy game, rabbits and wild fowl or exploit the timber. This left the land available for John Cator's heirs to ride, hunt and fish.

To be continued

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