Educational Establishments
Security conscious! A
When The Rev Nathaniel
Woodard embarked on his personal quest to provide first rate education to the less privileged in Sussex, little could he have known that, some 150 years later, another man would be on a similar quest, but this time to provide first rate sports surfaces for both the students and the sporting stars of tomorrow.
Tom James investigates 94 PC JUNE/JULY 2013
rdingly College - set in the small village of the same name four miles north of Haywards Heath - was originally founded as St. Saviour’s School in Shoreham in
1858, whilst the Rev. Woodard searched for an appropriate larger location. Following three years scouring the south coast, the 196-acre Saucelands estate, at the southern edge of Ardingly village, was found and duly purchased in 1862 for the princely sum of £6,000. Gothic Revival architect Richard Carpenter was tasked with the design of the buildings and, after eight years of planning and construction, the college finally had a permanent home, officially opening to students on 14th June 1870. Today, the college occupies a 227-acre site situated in what is now an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Ardingly is quite a different animal now than when Woodard founded it,
rooted in his charitable ethos, and is now one of the most sought-after schools in the UK, with an alumni including Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow, a host of Sussex cricketers past and present, including Ben Brown, Toby Peirce, Paul Phillipson and William Blackman, and the latest hot prospect, F1 driver Max Chilton. The sporting - and particularly
cricketing - reputation is strong here and, like many of its public school counterparts, the days of schools closing their doors during the holidays are over. Ardingly’s sports facilities are in high demand both within the UK and abroad, with international schools and professional sports clubs hiring the site for use in the summer and Easter holidays particularly.
As such, the work of the team of
grounds professionals on site is crucial to ensure the college can deliver what the
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