SMOKESCREEN


LOCATIONS - COPPED HALL, EPPING

John Theodore Talbot Fletcher inherited the Copped Hall Estate [approx 4000 acres] in May 1951 as "tenant for life", the estate having been bought by the Trustees of the Emily Charlotte Talbot Trust after the sale of the Margam estate.

Local people in Epping estimate that back in the 50s the Copped Hall estate included around 500 houses and 14 farms.

John Fletcher, being "tenant for life", received an allowance from the Trustees. Apparently (according to his Memoirs) he was also able to receive sums of money, due to capital improvements, which were tax free, and it was this money which financed the publication of his books.

If the Trust was intended to last for 500 years [see the Trust page for details], how was it that the Copped Hall estate which it owned could be divided up? John Fletcher wrote in his memoirs on 18th August 1988 about a meeting in London where it was discussed that the Copped Hall estate should be divided into three parts between himself, his nephew Andrew Fletcher and Andrew's half brother Donald, to save on death duties [see the Emily Charlotte Talbot Trust page].

It is well known that the Corporation of London has purchased a large part of the Copped Hall land; a number of buildings have been sold off and restored for housing, and the ruined Mansion now appears to be owned by the Copped Hall Trust.

Was the Emily Charlotte Talbot Trust the only beneficiary of monies from such sales, or did the dividing of the Copped Hall estate in fact go ahead? Was the trust itself dissolved? And if so, how did John Fletcher's Will leave less than a million pounds out of a Trust which the Royal Bank of Scotland estimated could be worth approaching £350 million around that time, quite apart from any residual funds from the sale of Saltoun Hall, assuming that was owned separately from the Trust?

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There are many pages of research and proofs to be added to this website - Ken Matthews and his wife Penny have discovered so many "coincidences" that it makes disturbing reading. These are the main areas of enquiry that will be covered [some are still under construction but we're adding new info regularly] - click on any of the boxes below to reach the relevant area.

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