Binfield Park, Du pont, Nylon & Richard Tauber

Had a very interesting afternoon......

Grandad owned Binfield Park from the late 1960s through to the early 1990s.

This morning, I had a phone call from Peter Kopik, the current co-owner of Binfield Park. He rang Park Farm and fortunately I was in the office to answer the call. We chatted for a quarter of and hour or so and it resulted in him inviting Grandad & I up to Binfield Park for a look around. I had never been up there before.

We arrived and spent an hour or so looking around with Paul & Peter (and their 2 dogs!). I am unsure of the ownership details but from what I gather there are 3 Kopik brothers that own Binfield Park and over the time they have owned it, they have gradually improved/re-developed the buildings that stand there. Grandad walked around explaining how various parts of the buildings have changed compared to what he remembers. He had a good recollection of how the farm used to be laid out.

I spent some time talking to both brothers. Peter told us how Binfield Park was owned by the DuPont family which has now become a major American Chemical Company. He expained that the DuPont enterprise invented Nylon and it was so called because of the New York & London connection.

Grandad also told me that Richard Tauber, an Austrian tenor used to live in the bungalow next door to Binfield Park.

Great Great Grandfather Buckle and Collard & Collard

This is a photograph of Grandad's grandparents, Mr & Mrs Buckle (he isnt sure if it was spelt 'le' or 'el' at the end) Mr Buckle spent his whole working life building pianos at Collard & Collard th famous piano makers in Camden, London.

This is a picture of Cecil Collard, which was found in grandads collection. It signed by him and dated October 1919. It appears Cecil Collard took over the running of the business and that he is credited with atleast 2 patents relating to pianos and their manufacture.

One can only speculate as to why this picture of a cricket team was found in the photo collection. As with the picture of Cecil Collard, it is actually a post card. It is embossed with 'Lambert Camden N.W' Due to the location of Collard & Collard in Camden, we are assuming that this is a Collard & Collard cricket team from the early 1900s.

The Lord & the Letterbox

Part of Halseys (Park Farm House) was redeveloped in the mid 1890s. Jim Gale (EG grandfather) had decided to move the entire family into the front half of the house whilst the work was carried out. The rear half was rebuilt and the front half remained unchanged (until the 1980s).



During the 1920s Harry Gale (EG father) had a small 'lean to' built onto the northern side of the house to provide the first WC the house had enjoyed in all its time!

Up until that time, the Kitchen had been on the NE corner (currently the office) and was served by the tall chimney as seen in these pictures. Around 1983 the front of the house was reformed by moving the kitchen to current position, pulling down the chimney and removing the low grade construction across the front. A porch was built and two windows were installed where the chimney was.

The wall across the front of these pictures was built in the 19th century. At the yard end was a letter box which was famously demolished by Harry Gale (EG father) reversing his Standard Flyer through it. The letterbox ended up on the floor and Sir George Etherton came along and posted a letter in its horizontal state! This wall was eventually demolished during the early 1970s.

Brian Moore was employed as principal tractor driver during the 1970s and helped build the wooden shed seen behind the wall. This shed still stands today and is home to Warfields. The shed was one of the original RAF buildings at Shinfield and is the same as the one at Matthewsgreen Farm. These buildings were dismantled and removed from Shinfield to make way for the new M4 motorway.

All the pictures in this article were taken in the early 1970s on an early Polaroid camera and have faded over time.