Coping (architecture)

Coping (from cope, Latin capa) consists of the capping or covering of a wall.

A splayed or wedge coping slopes in a single direction; a saddle coping slopes to either side of a central high point.

A coping may consist of stone (capstone), brick, tile, slate, metal, wood or thatch. In all cases it should be weathered to throw off the water.

Various types of copings exist. A diagramatic explanation of copper copings is available.

In Romanesque work copings appeared plain and flat, and projected over the wall with a throating to form a drip. In later work a steep slope was given to the weathering (mainly on the outer side), and began at the top with an astragal; in the Decorated style there were two or three sets off; and in the later Perpendicular Period these assumed a wavy section, and the coping mouldings continued round the sides, as well as at top and bottom, mitreing at the angles, as in many of the colleges at Oxford.

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