EDUCATION SCHOOLS PROFILE
Duke of Buckingham and Chandos had extravagant tastes, accumulating over £1 million in debts. The debts owed partly to the reworking of 15 state rooms in the hope of accommodating Queen Victoria, who eventually visited Stowe for three days in 1845. The first sale of the house and
than 120,000 people each year
School’s grounds are visited by more
Stowe
grounds took place three years later. However it was in 1922, with the risk of the estate breaking up, that a commission set up to create a new public school found the money to buy Stowe. It grew from 99 pupils during 1923, its first year of opening, to 500 pupils in just over a decade. Today, Stowe houses around 600 girls and boys. Its grounds, which are under The National Trust’s ownership, are visited by more than 120,000 people each year. Stowe is not alone. It was not uncommon for large houses and estates to be sold off after the First World War, due to the size and cost of running them. A fee-paying school was often the most financially viable option, which is why so many dotted round the country
are former family homes. Milton Abbey School
in Dorset is another example of an estate that became too big
Above: The sumptuous architecture of Stowe School, Buckingham
to manage. Originally a 10th century collegiate church, it became an abbey for Benedictine monks, then after the abolition of the monasteries, was bought by Sir John Tregonwell in 1540. It remained in private ownership until 1932 when it became a school. Today, Milton Abbey’s six boarding houses are named Athelstan, Bancks, Damer, Hambro, Middleton and Tregonwell, as a testament to the families that lived there for nearly 400 years. An old boy from Hambro House said, “It was only when I was halfway down the drive on my last day that I realised just how beautiful my school was.” At London’s Westminster School, the Benedictine monks of the Abbey
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played a more prominent role in the school’s past when they started schooling boys in 1179. But it isn’t just monks who make up the colourful history of the buildings. Ashburnham House, where the library, mathematics and IT rooms are situated, was originally the seat of the Earls of
Ashburnham, designed by renowned Palladian architect Inigo Jones. During the Second World War, the
library housed an RAF communications station while the room below was a gentlemen’s club for American officers, but the house’s grounds also excite interest; the College Garden is ✒
BEFORE THEY WERE SCHOOLS
Gordonstoun Family estate since the 13th century, last inhabited by the Gordons including author Constance F. Gordon-Cumming who lived there in 1904.
www.gordonstoun.org.uk
The Harrodian School Sports
club for Harrods’ employees.
www.harrodian.com
Howell’s School The music
building was Roald Dahl’s childhood home.
www.howells-cardiff.gdst.net
Lord Wandsworth College
Foundation for children from agricultural backgrounds who’d lost ‘one or both parents’. Of the children there today, 10 per cent are Foundation Award pupils.
www.lordwandsworth.org
Millfield School Originally rented
from the successful shoe-making Clarks family who owned most of Street at the time.
www.millfieldschool.com
Milton Abbey School An abbey
for Benedictine monks and the former home of six families: the Athelstans, Bancks, Damers, Hambros, Middletons and Tregonwells.
www.miltonabbey.co.uk
Moorlands School, formerly
Foxhill Home to the Tetley brewing family, then a retirement home for lawyers and judges, a restaurant owned by a famous 1950s TV chef and penultimately a ‘gaming lodge’.
www.moorlands-school.co.uk
Mayfield The old palace served as a residence to the Archbishops of Canterbury before its restoration in 1864 during which time nuns taught
a small number of orphans among the ruins. The first pupils arrived in 1872.
www.mayfieldgirls.org Stowe School Home to the Dukes of Buckingham.
www.stowe.co.uk
St. David’s College, formerly
Gloddaeth Hall Home to Lord Mostyn’s family and also the setting for 1971 thriller Unman,
Wittering and Zigo starring David
Hemmings and Denis Waterman.
www.stdavidscollege.co.uk
St. Leonards Library Former
lodgings to Mary, Queen of Scots. The school lays claim to the first ever lacrosse game and is said to have been the building Enid Blyton based Malory Towers on.
www.stleonards-fife.org
Queen Mary’s School Originally
Newby Park – home to MP and Lord Mayor of York Sir William Robinson.
www.queenmarys.org
St. Mary’s School, Ascot Convent
for the nun’s of the order: Congregation of Jesus (CJ). Only two non-lay staff remain, Sister Michaela, a teacher, and Fr Dermot, the school’s chaplain.
www.st-marys-ascot.co.uk
Wellington College This college
was set up in memory of the Duke of Wellington, to educate the orphans of army officers.
www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk
Westminster School Pope
Alexander III ordered the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey to provide a small charity school in 1179. Henry VIII ensured the school’s survival by statute during the dissolution of the monasteries.
www.westminster.org.uk
SUMMER 2010 FIRST ELEVEN 17
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