Report - Coppins Farm, Bucks, 2009

[Snurgles]

A first thread...so be gentle with me (as if......)

As far as I can tell, this place has been done once before - quite recently, nicely done by Zombizza: http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/68598-Coppins-Farm-Iver-February-2012 - that thread include a Bing maps oblique aerial photo of the site. As one commentator said, perhaps not the most inspiring of sites - though it does have one odd, interesting feature - but somewhere to start since I've been snurgling around derelicts with my camera for a while, and lurking here forever....so time to share...

As for history, not much to add to what Zombizza points out; there's very little (ie, almost nothing) on the net about the place, though there are a couple of wartime pictures here : http://sloughmuseum.org/collection/land-army-girl-rita-saunders-with-sid-griffin-at-coppins-farm-in-iver/ hosted by Slough museum, which show that it was operated by Land girls during the war; the pig-sty in this pic: http://sloughmuseum.org/collection/land-army-girl-mrs-r-saunders-cleaning-pig-sty-coppins-farm-slough/ is still there, though Sod's law meant that I'd not seen that pic first and didn't get a shot of it when I visited. It's tucked away a little in one of those marginal parcels of land that get lost between bigger farms, houses and major roads (the sort of land that's a God-send to urbexers I guess); it's not terribly hard to find...but then probably not worth a lot of trouble getting to either !

If I had to guess, I reckon that this was an experimental farm of some description - there is just something about its' size and layout that says "1930 - 50's institutional attempt to improve productivity thru science" - ie it's not big enough to be an agri-industrial farm - but shows all the signs (planned layout, unitary style of architecture, paint and fittings, lots of plumbing) of taking that sort of approach.

On with the pictures:

General view of the site - note the weird pointy-roofed building to the left.

The central yard.

And a series of details, largely taken in an area full of what looked like individual stalls for cows (yet more of an indication that this was someone's idea of a scientific approach to farming):

Can you believe - people collect manuals like this ? http://www.agrimanuals.com/howard-rotavator-e-series-iv-operators-manual---e40-e50-e60-e70-e80-e90-1366-p.asp £12.99 ! There's even a parts list here: http://www.kongskilde.com/NR/rdonlyres/82CE0EBB-2694-4EA9-8F86-9DD0EB48896D/0/HowardEserie3.pdf Agricultural machinery ephemera aside, that manual dates from the sixties, which suggests that the farm was operating until at least then.

It's a host of little details like this - strictly unnecessary to the efficient running of a farm but nice to look at nonetheless, that make me wonder whether this was some sort of model farm. (Probably completely irrelevant, but just back down the lane at the end of which this ruin can be found, is Coppins House, which used to belong to the Royal Family [Wiki entry : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppins ] - I wonder if the two are related.

And then the odd/mildly interesting bit:

From the tiling and plumbing I guess that this needlessly decorative building was a dairy of some sort -whoever built it went to quite a bit of trouble with the tiling:

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Sadly, the roof is long-ago burnt and gone, and it can only be a matter of time before the rest goes the same way.

So there you go. A mild curiosity at best, but I hope it's good enough to stay out of the pit. And if there are any "history of agriculture" geeks out there who can shed any light on the story of this unusual little place then I'd be grateful - even if nobody else is.

 

[KateP]

I think my grandfather Harold Kirby used to work here as head cowman in the early 1930s after his own farm went bust. He was sacked in 1934 after a dispute with the Princess's head of household. He was a trained agriculturalist but I don't know whether he used any expermental techniques at the farm. He later worked for a War Agricultural Committee so would have been interested in improving agricultural methods.

 

[John Finlay]

I worked on the farm in 1951/52/53. I was still in school and an active member of the Young Farmers Club in the UK, I worked on weekends and holidays. The farm was a fully operating dairy farm with a small 30 or so pedigree Jersey herd and about half a dozen pigs. I am sure that the cattle could probably still be found in the Jersey Catle Breeders Registry for 1950 or so.

Sam the owner had restored the farm after returning from the war. The blue and white building was a dairy. The milking was fully mechanized with Laval milking machines and a pasteurizer. The farm had access to about 100 acres on the Duchess of Kents estate as well as the actual Coppins farm land.

Sam and his wife, who was permanently in a wheelchair lived in a small bungalow which the tiled fireplace in the photos was a part of.

Sam wanted me to come and work on the farm when I left school. He offered to give me a piglet from the next litter and I could establish my own business while working on the farm. Because he wouldn't sign a contract my Mother and Stepfather refused.

I am now an 81 year old living in Vancouver, Canada. I have managed a variety of businesses in my life,but none in farming!

 

[KateP]

I worked on the farm in 1951/52/53. I was still in school and an active member of the Young Farmers Club in the UK, I worked on weekends and holidays. The farm was a fully operating dairy farm with a small 30 or so pedigree Jersey herd and about half a dozen pigs. I am sure that the cattle could probably still be found in the Jersey Catle Breeders Registry for 1950 or so.

Sam the owner had restored the farm after returning from the war. The blue and white building was a dairy. The milking was fully mechanized with Laval milking machines and a pasteurizer. The farm had access to about 100 acres on the Duchess of Kents estate as well as the actual Coppins farm land.

Sam and his wife, who was permanently in a wheelchair lived in a small bungalow which the tiled fireplace in the photos was a part of.

Sam wanted me to come and work on the farm when I left school. He offered to give me a piglet from the next litter and I could establish my own business while working on the farm. Because he wouldn't sign a contract my Mother and Stepfather refused.

I am now an 81 year old living in Vancouver, Canada. I have managed a variety of businesses in my life,but none in farming!

Hello there,

I am the one whose grandfather used to work there (have posted before and have since visited).

So when you worked there was the farm actually supplying/owned by the Coppins estate or independently owned?

I think the small house might have been where my grandfather and his wife lived and where my uncle was born. This is a picture of my uncle and my grandmother with Princess Victoria (who left it to the Duke of Kent) in about 1930 before my grandfather had the row with the Princess's Comptroller which led to his sacking!! My grandmother did the milking having also grown up in the country.

Best wishes,

Kate Vineall (London)