In the beginning ...
"Ut seres, ita metes"
(The School Motto 1870-1899)
The Revrend Edmund Fowle, the son of the vicar of
Amesbury in Wiltshire, founded his school in 1870 in
Redhill. He was curate at Amesbury between 1856 and 1862
prior to becoming vicar of Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire.
Then he moved to Craven Lodge, Reigate Road, Redhill
with his wife and two daughters and according to the
census of 1871, his first pupil was a ten-year- old boy
called Roger Dalison who lived with the family.
From the late 1850’s onwards there was tremendous
development in the Redhill area and by 1871 the
population of the borough had increased to 16,000. There
were already a number of schools in the area but in the
summer holidays of 1871 the School moved to Raglan Road,
Reigate where it remained until 1876. The school was
known as Amesbury House.
During these early years the school took both day pupils
and boarders and numbers varied. In 1876 with 26 pupils,
the house in Raglan Road proved too small and a move had
to be made. Fowle found a seven-acre site in Bickley,
Kent, called Starve Acre Field.
By all accounts it was a fairly bleak site consisting of
two gravel pits and a footpath, but Fowle soon built his
new School with accommodation for thirty boys.
Boys were admitted between the ages of 8-11 and no boy
could remain in the school after 15. They were prepared
for public school with the usual English subjects,
arithmetic, Latin, Greek, French and music; drawing,
German, drilling and gymnastics were taught as extras.
In 1887, Amesbury House was sold to E.H.Moore who ran it
in partnership with Mr E.A.Thompson until 1889 when the
latter migrated to South Africa.
During Moore’s time at the School, numbers steadily
increased. He encouraged the boys not only in their
academic work but also in music and drama. He was a
self-taught pianist and also played the organ and he and
the staff and boys frequently held musical evenings.
In 1899, Moore decided to introduce a School Magazine
and it was in the first issue of this magazine that the
present School Motto appeared “Nitere
ut Vincas”.
By the turn of the C20th, the School was outgrowing its
site. Due to increasing numbers over the previous years,
the buildings had been extended as far as possible and
attempts were made to find more suitable premises.
According to the Magazine “a gentleman once described
the School estate as ‘a charming place with a bad end’.
The ‘bad end’ was to be found in Tylney and Holmesdale
Roads, where gasworks, brickfields and dense growth of
small cottages spoil the otherwise perfect setting
surrounding the school.”
Moore contemplated moving the school to the coast, but
was reluctant to do so because the School had become so
much a part of the local community. Then, Bickley Hall
became tenantless and with the help of friends and
well-wishers and some alterations to the building,
Amesbury House moved at the end of 1902 and with the
moved changed its name to Amesbury School. In fact there
is still an Amesbury Road in Bickley today, very close
to where the school must have been.
A popular and well-respected headmaster, Mr Moore died
tragically in August 1903. The Old Amesburians Club,
which Moore founded in the early years of his headship,
also decided in 1905 that a prize should be given to
‘the Best Fellow in the School’ – this was to be known
as the Moore Prize, which is still awarded today to the
Head Boy and the Head Girl.
After her husband’s death, Mrs Moore continued to run
the school until Mr E Cotgreave Brown joined as the new
headmaster in 1904 and the following year Mr Brown and
Mrs Moore became joint proprietors of the School. Mr
Brown married in 1913 and Mrs Moore decided that the
time had come to leave Amesbury.
The Move to Hindhead
The headmaster of the day Mr Cotgreave Brown announced
in October 1917 that the school would move from Bickley
to its current location in Hindhead at the end of that
term. There were two main reasons for the move: Firstly,
to away from the anti-aircraft guns and danger
associated with being so close to London during the
war-time, and Secondly to take advantage of the rural
location and healthy area of Hindhead.
The School became full boarding and it is a testimony to
Brown’s popularity that nearly all the pupils moved with
the School to Hindhead.
The new main School building was designed by Sir Edwin
Lutyens and built for the specific purpose of a school
in 1903. The building is important because the Mount
School (as it was known) was the earliest design
completed by Lutyens in the Wren style. Today it
classified as ‘a grade 2* listed building of national
significance’. Of particular interest are the strainer
arches in the upstairs passage and the small windows on
the eastern western face of the building, small because
Lutyens believed that a room should contain pools of
light rather than overall brightness.
Amesbury moved into its magnificent new home in time for
the start of term in February 1918. The gymnasium was
brought from Bickley by horse-drawn carts and re-erected
on its present site.
In 1920, after sixteen years as Headmaster, Mr Brown
resigned. He appears to have been a popular and
effective headmaster whose main aim was ‘that Amesbury
should be a place for training the best men”.
Amesbury’s new headmaster was Mr C. L. MacDonald who
returned to teaching after a distinguished record during
the War. MacDonald (or Clem as he was known to all his
pupils) introduced a system of stars and stripes – a
system that continued in modified form until 1971.
By the Autumn Term 1923, there were 51 boarders, which
was a record. A neighbouring house called Bracklands was
bought in 1927 and was to remain part of the School
until 1979, housing classrooms, library, music and games
room and some staff accommodation.
The thirties passed peacefully for the School. Clem’s
health suffered and he died in 1939. Mac Donald had been
at the school for eighteen years. He was a popular
headmaster, well respected and kind and remembered by a
pupil of the time as ‘a genius’.
The new headmaster, Major Tom Reynolds, took over the
School in the Autumn of 1938. One of the first things
Reynolds did was to help design the School Chapel, which
was put up during the Summer holidays and dedicated on
October 2nd 1938 in the name of St Francis, by the Right
Reverend J.V. Macmillan, Bishop of Guildford. Prior to
the Chapel, prayers had been said in the corridor of the
main school building. There were many gifts given to the
Chapel on its dedication from Old boys, parents, staff
and pupils, including a pew in memory of the late
headmaster, Mr MacDonald. One gift still in use today
was an altar prayer book presented by the Rev. W. R.
Mills and Highfield School, with the following
inscription. “A gift from Highfield School for use in
this chapel in recollection of many happy years of
rivalry.”
The wooden panelling covering the walls of the chancel
was completed in 1942 and was a gift to the school from
Lieutenant General B. L. Montgomery and his son David.
King George V1 gave Montgomery his consent to allow the
Amesbury Chapel Choir to wear scarlet cassocks.
General Sir Bernard Montgomery, whose son David became a
pupil in 1936 was a regular visitor to the school during
the war. Amesbury was ‘home’ for Montgomery and his son
David (a former pupil) during the ‘40’s, the Reynolds
became David’s guardians.
Montgomery regularly visited Amesbury when in this
country. During the War he presented the School with
signed portraits including those of the King and General
Eisenhower. One trophy remembered was the famous red
shirt worn by Garibaldi, which hung in a glass case
opposite the dining hall.
By D Day in 1944, Amesbury had become Montgomery’s Rear
HQ. A plaque was put on the door of his room in the
Headmaster’s house with the 21st Army Group sign and it
was here and in the summerhouse in the remembrance
garden that he was visited by his staff and generals. On
5th June 1944 Montgomery dined at Amesbury before
leaving for Normandy.
Apart from the excitement surrounding General
Montgomery’s visits, life at Amesbury was little
affected during the Second World War. Sporting fixtures
against local preparatory schools such as Edgeborough,
Highfield and St Edmund’s continued.
In 1947 following demobilisation, A.G.Peel joined the
Amesbury staff with the intention of going into
partnership with Reynolds and succeeding him as
headmaster. After a short time, however, Reynolds
decided to retire. He had made a tremendous impact on
the boys who were at Amesbury, especially during the War
years when their own fathers were away. Peel took over
in 1948 in partnership with J.L.Potter until the latter
left in 1956 and continued as Headmaster until 1970.
1970 was a year of extreme difficulty and a crucial one
in Amesbury’s history. After a log period of good
numbers and a virtually unchanged staff, which had
nesured a good record of academic success, changes began
to happen. Mr Peel was himself reaching an age when he
could reasonably think of retiring and there had been
one or two abortive attempts to find a suitable
successor to take over the school. Eventually the
parents formed a committee and looked into the
possibility of turning the School into an Educational
Trust.
Peel was doubtful whether this would work and decided to
write to all parents giving them formal notice that the
School, would close at the end of the summer term, but
adding that efforts were being made to save it, which he
hoped would succeed.
The Chairman of the Committee, H. H. Rose, OBE, a
parent, appealed to the parents “ as this is Amesbury’s
Centenary Year, it would be a tragedy if the School had
to close. We have therefore, after a very careful
review, come to the conclusion that we should endeavour
to set up an educational Trust, which would enable
Amesbury to continue under a salaried Head Master with a
board of governors.”
A number of generous donations and interest free loans
were received and by May the £25,000 minimum required
had been assured and the committee decided, with Mr
Peel’s willing co-operation, that the School should
become an Educational Trust and a board of governors
appointed. Mr Peel agreed to continue as Headmaster
until a replacement could be found.
Today the main academic scholarship ‘The Rose
Scholarship’ is named after H.H.Rose OBE.
During this uncertain time, numbers in the school
suffered and by the time Dominick Spencer became the
school’s first salaried headmaster in 1971 there were
only 59 boys in the School. The next three years saw
numbers steadily rise - day boys were welcomed and the
school adjusted so that they could play a full part in
school life. Full boarding continued but weekly boarding
was started for the younger pupils.
With numbers steadily increasing, the School was back on
a sound financial footing and the governors felt able to
stat some much needed improvements. The old theatre was
now too small and the gymnasium was converted to act as
a centre for PT, fencing, badminton, theatre and cinema.
In 1973, with Science due to become a compulsory subject
in Common Entrance, a dedicated teaching facility was
needed. The next few years saw gradual improvements
throughout the School, with money being raised through
fetes and dances, thanks to the generosity of parents.
The early 1980’s saw the stable block converted for
staff accommodation and the old vegetable garden became
grass tennis courts until 1987 when the all weather hard
courts were built.
A new teaching block was added in 1987 housing
classrooms, art room and a new science lab. Always known
as the New Block, in 1995, it was renamed Spencers as a
tribute to Dominick and Sue Spencer, who retired in
1989.
In 1987 Amesbury opened a Pre-Prep Department (the first
of its kind in the area) catering for pupils under
seven.
Adapted From ‘Amesbury Rejoices’ by Frances Thomas 1995.
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