Crawter and Sons , estate agents

The firm of Crawter and Sons was founded in 1788 by Henry Crawter and still occupies the same premises at Turner's Hill, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. Their activities as surveyors, valuers and estate agents and the extent of their business connections are shown in this collection. They seem to have been particularly concerned with the eastern part of Middlesex and Henry Crawter was an Enclosure Commissioner for Enfield. Crawter and Sons acted as receivers and managers for the Connop family estates in Middlesex and Hertfordshire.

According to "A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5", the manor of Durants Place, known also as Durants, was sold to Newell Connop of Penton in Crediton (Devon) in 1793. Newell Connop died in 1831, leaving the manor to his son Woodham (d. 1868), whose widow Emily was lady of the manor in 1874. Newell Connop greatly enlarged the Durants estate from 150 acres near the manor-house. In 1787 he bought 285 acres around Enfield Highway and Ponders End, which formerly had belonged to Eliab Breton of Forty Hall, and circa 1792 he bought 462 acres of common-field land in the same area from Charles Bowles. In 1804 he purchased 168 acres from John Blackburn of Bush Hill, Edmonton, bringing his total estate in Enfield to 1,226 acres, most of it in the south-east part of the parish. Later purchases included Bury farm, 149 acres, in 1818. On Newell Connop's death his estates were divided among his family and on Woodham's death many were sold, with the manor. The copyhold lands in the 18th and 19th centuries consisted of cottages and small parcels in the south of the parish, mostly near Ponders End.