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Alfred Cope was born at Berkeley, Gloucestershire in 1853 the son
of a plasterer. A later teachers' register for the
Diocese records his appointment at a salary of £96.00. His wife and family
followed him from Uxbridge, Middlesex some time later, one account
by son Reg describing their
arrival by train at Newland Station followed by a long
steep uphill walk to Scowles School. The teachers'
register records
Sophia Cope's appointment as being from January 1890 at a
salary of £35.00. Local records show she had only recently
given birth to daughter
Eleanor at Scowles in July 1889.
The
Copes brought with them to the school house three children,
Alfred (Reg) (born Uxbridge 1883) , Selwyn (Arthur) (born
Uxbridge 1885), and daughter
Beatrice (born Uxbridge 1887) and then added at Coleford, Eleanor in 1889, Charles 1892, Marion, 1895;
and Grace in 1900.
The
Cope family at the Scowles around 1902
Alfred
Cope was born in Berkeley, South Gloucesershire on
27/3/1853, baptised on 1/5/1853 and
lived in Pump House Cottage. He is mentioned in
the Berkeley Parish Church Magazine several times;
from being rewarded for "continued good conduct,
punctual attendance and industry at Sunday school"
(in 1864); "Alfred has not been absent from school once
during the year" (May 1873), also "Excellent in
drawing, passed in perspective”; to "Mr. Alfred
Cope has passed out of Training College at
Cheltenham and has taken an Assistant Mastership
in a Board School in Greenwich" (Jan 1876).
One
thing not said in the Parish Magazine was that he
gained a scholarship to Rugby school.
In
the 1881 Census he was aged 28 and his
occupation shown as Pupil Teacher. He married an
Uxbridge girl, Sophia Martha Bradfield, who
preferred to be called "Patti", on
10/08/1882.
They
must have moved after the birth of their 1st child,
from St. Andrew, Hillingdon to "Alfred's Villa",
Uxbridge. A few years after living in London he
started suffering from mild epilepsy and as a result
decided in 1888 he should accept the Headmastership
of Scowles School, near Coleford in the Forest
of Dean.
Their
house was incorporated into the
school building.
His wife Patti, who I think may also have
been a teacher before marriage, loved the town life
and never really felt at home in the country. My
Mother always reckoned Alfred must have been a
very hard man because when his daughter Eleanor
was raped at a very young age (at about 10) and
witnessed by Charles who was 3 years younger,
Alfred never believed them when they got home and
told their story.
Eleanor never really recovered from the
trauma and depended on her siblings for care and
support throughout the rest of her life.
Alfred
died
on 28/11/1920 aged 67 and Martha Patti died just
over 18 years later on the 11/2/1939 - both being
buried together in Coleford Cemetery.
Apparently
the school was then a very happy one, thanks mainly to the Cope family.
As well as looking after her own seven children, Sophia
(Patti) Cope
who played the harmonium of which there were two at
Scowles, one for the infants and the other for the remainder of the
pupils, settled there and for the remainder of her working
life competently co-managed the school. The couple certainly
must have have given the pupils a long awaited sense of
stability after so many earlier changes in the regime. They
would also have had a good deal of help from the long
established Infant's Mistress, Emma Fitzgerald and her
cousin Frances Hewlett.
There
were two railway stations functioning in my younger days.
The LMS and the GWR which ran quite a good service. The
first to Lydney Junction, connecting with trains to
Gloucester and Paddington and the other to Monmouth and
south and north of the Welsh border.'
Reg Cope
An
endowment from Mary Brickdale ensured that the above
Ascension Day custom of buns and a drink after the church
service continued throughout the life of the school but
fortunately in later years the long walk to Newland Church
was dispensed with and the log of 1967 records that teachers
and pupils attended Scowles Chapel.
'One
regular feature of our Scowles School calendar was for the
staff and children to attend a service at Newland Church on
Ascension Day. This function was followed by by Miss
Brickdale inviting us to have milk and buns on her lawn
before we faced the uphill walk back to school, via the
Burying Path, down Dog Kennel Pitch, and then uphill again
through a field by the side of Bells Wood.' Reg
Cope
"Re Mary Brickdale who endowed the school, one of the quirks of that endowment
was that each Ascension Day the school assembled, went to the village chapel
for a service and then back to school for free cream buns and milk (bear in
mind this started long before free school milk). The pupils then had the day
off. Incidentally as a youngster I was the official bell ringer and organ
blower for the chapel and was paid ten shillings, twice a year! "
David
Dowle - a pupil from 1949.
Boys
and girls were rigidly separated in the playground by a high
wooden fence. On one side were the infants or "Little
Infunce" as they were
called
and the girls who were known by the old fashioned name of
"Wenchen". The girls joined in many singing games,
dancing in a ring and singing;-
“The
wind, the wind, the wind blows high,
The
rain comes pouring from the sky,
She
is handsome, she is pretty,
She
is the girl from the Royal City,
She
goes courting, one, two, three,
Bring
her across the water
Give
her kisses, one, two, three,
Mrs.
Cope's daughter.”
From
Charles Cope's memoirs
with acknowledgements to family historian Michael Cope.
In
class, I can still see Reg and Arthur sitting in the front
row, and Bea in the third row among the girls. I could go on
and on but I will content myself by saying that in spite of
old fashioned methods, or because of them, Father produced
pupils who could read, write and spell better than the
present day children, some of whom, even at the end of their
Secondary School life can do none of them, remaining almost
illiterate. By a strange twist of Fate, Monnica Cope became their
last Head Teacher - thus the first and the last were Copes.
I
visited Monnica's School several times and how different it
all was. As I opened the door I could hear a subdued hum of
voices, everyone on the move, working happily and
with a purpose on some project or other. The tedious class
lesson was rarely heard. And then the School had to be
closed. The population had changed, the school had ceased to
serve a useful purpose and after 100 years Miss Brickdale's
generosity had borne good fruit.
Charles
Egbert Cope
CHARLES
EGBERT COPE 1892-1979
Charles Cope was born on 29/10/1892 at The Scowles, Coleford. He was the
son of headmaster Alfred Cope who was headmaster at Scowles School, Coleford
between 1888 and 1915.
The 1911 census records Charles Cope's occupation as 'assistant teacher'.
He
enlisted in 1914 in the Oxford and Buckingham Light
Infantry.
Early
in 1915 his colonel sent
him back from France for officer training.
Subsequently he served in the Royal Fusiliers with
the
rank of captain. He
was awarded the Military Cross for leading a night patrol
which breached enemy
defences using "Bangalore Torpedoes".
The decoration was awarded in the field by KG5.
There
was also a "Mentioned in Dispatches" for another
operation. After
the end of hostilities he was with the British Army of
Occupation on the Rhine.
Finally he was at the Imperial Training College until
about 1923.
He
was also an accomplished organist.
Charles married 29 year old Paulina Kear Hewlett in 1922 and the couple
migrated to Australia in 1923. They had three children, Patti Beatrice
(1923), John Oswald (1924), and Joan Paulina (1926)
He later became Headmaster of schools in the State of Victoria.
His wife Pauline died around 1964.
75
year old Charles Cope returned for a holiday in the UK and a reunion with
his brothers Reginald and Arthur during 1967 and stayed with his sister,
Mrs Marion Holford, at 41 Staunton Road, Coleford.
Whilst
visiting his old home at Scowles School he met a friend of the family, 53
year old widowed teacher Monnica Thompson. She was born in the Old School
House at St.Briavels in 1914, educated at Monmouth and going on to London
University.
Their wedding took place in St. John's Church, Coleford on the 2nd of
November 1968.
Monnica Cope was the last head teacher of Scowles School when it closed in
November 1969.
Charles died on the 23/7/1979 at Tyltham's, Mork Lane, St. Briavels, and
Monnica in 1993 at Gloucester Royal Infirmary.
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