Ashdown House Preparatory School
This was from a trip out with @Mikeymutt and Man Gone Wrong. The day started off as a failure as the place we planned to visit was a no go. Mikey mentioned he had recently heard about a lovely old school not too far away, so we gave it a visit.
It was a bit of a tough one to crack, walking onto the site, we saw a small group of people in the corner of the field, they definitely saw us, and a police car drove past us on the dead end road leading to the school so we wondered if they were anything to do with that. On top of that, there were fairly new security cameras and sensors on poles dotted around which had to be avoided. Luckily, we dodged these and managed to get to the building itself. The next problem was gaining access, we spent a good twenty minutes hunting but to no avail. Apparently Chris heard voices, so we waited it out for several minutes until it seemed they had moved on. Eventually Mikey found a way and got us all in. It was worth the effort, especially for that staircase. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to investigate the whole site, the dying November light can be blamed for that.
History
Ashdown House was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, an English-born architect who later emigrated to the United States of America. Ashdown House was his last work in England before emigrating, where he became the first formally fully trained professional architect in the United States. It was because of this that he eventually entered government office as the ‘Architect of the Capitol’. He was responsible for designing some of the key features of the White House and the Capitol building. The domes at Ashdown were described by some scholars as ‘miniature prototypes’ of those found at the Capitol.
Construction started on Ashdown House in June 1793 and it was completed on 18th March 1795 for the then owner of the 32-acre Estate, Trayton Fuller as their residence.
It was one of the first houses in England to be built in ‘Greek Revival’ architecture. This style became quite popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It took inspiration and key features from ancient Greek architecture, in particular the temples seen in Athens. Other examples of this design include the famous Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Old Royal High School in Edinburgh and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
The manor house remained in the ownership of the Fuller family until it was sold in 1876 for use as a preparatory school and it remained in use as a school until July 2020. It taught children between the ages of seven to thirteen and charged a fee of up to £10,000 per term.
The site consists of the main school building, a senior girl boarding building, junior girls boarding building, theatre and art block, science block, east wing boarding building, chapel, dining hall, pre-school, log cabin, sports barn, indoor swimming pool, cricket pavilion and tractor storage. There are also ten residential buildings on site for teachers and staff to live in. The main school building was given grade II* listed status on 26th November 1953
Of course, being a preparatory school and being in Sussex, there were a few notable former pupils including ‘Homeland’ actor Damien Lewis, ‘Question Time’ host and journalist Rachel Johnson, but most notably I’d say is former prime minister Boris Johnson. He attended from 1975, after moving back to the United Kingdom from Brussels after his mother had a nervous breakdown. While at Ashdown School, he developed interests in rugby, Ancient Greek and Latin. Eventually, he left Ashdown where he then moved on to Eton College in 1977.
The school closed down in 2020 during Covid and never reopened. Mainly due to pupil numbers dropping significantly, most likely due to parents lost income as a direct impact of the Covid 19 pandemic. It seems that the school was in financial difficulties before Covid, the closure may have also been in an attempt to consolidate some of the trusts debt. The whole site was sold off in November 2021 to a property development firm called Even Ashdown ltd, the figure of which varies depending what source you check, some say £4.75 million, one source mentioned £5.95 million!
Historical allegations
The history of the school does take a dark turn however. As with many others in the 70s, there are allegations of historical sexual abuse of pupils. These were investigated in 2013 by law firm Slater & Gordon. Former pupils recall how the environment of the school had been ‘spartan and unforgiving’ with boys being regularly punished with canings and other methods. Abuse at the school was most notably made public by journalist Alex Renton in his book Stiff Upper Lip, and a Radio 4 documentary he hosted.
In July 2014, former headmaster Clive Williams was interviewed by Sussex Police following allegations of sexual abuse and child neglect, however, after several months of investigations, including searches of his computer and personal documents, no charges were made.
Martin Haigh, a former teacher at Ashdown was convicted of eleven sex offences against children, and at the time of his arrest in 2016, having indecent images on his computer. Haigh committed the crimes between 1973 and 1975 to boys aged seven to twelve.
In January 2023, former teacher David Price was charged with three counts of indecent assault in the 1980s. He was arrested following an eleven-page account that was submitted to police in Cape Town by a former pupil of Western Province prep school where Price had been employed. The complainant came forward as a result of Alex Renton's book.
Future
There has been a planning application put in place for the site, mapping out plans to build 47 new dwellings. Locals seem to be strongly opposed to this. There are laminated letters all around the area and on telegraph poles on the road objecting to the plans. The letters state the access drive and pedestrian safety as key issues. I can understand why. The site is on a dead-end, single-track road with limited passing places. A large new development in this area would require improved infrastructure to support it. Checking online also finds that the development firm maybe trying to exploit loopholes and attempting to convert the main house to nine luxury duplex and triplex apartments, installing gyms, home cinemas and 16ft-wide lift shafts. An extract states “The south-east of England has a profound housing crisis, but this won’t be resolved by destroying internationally significant heritage to build expensive, high-carbon homes, at the end of 1000 metres of a winding single-lane road, with no prospect of a viable community, no access to local jobs, schools and GPs already at full capacity.”
The future of the building seems uncertain, judging by the backlash from the locals, they’re going to do everything in their power to block the development firm from doing what they wish. And with the building being listed too, hmm, can anyone feel an ‘accidental’ fire coming on soon....
Starting off with a photo of the front of the building from back in the early 1970s. I forgot to take a shot of the very front of the building, which is partially why I'm including this also.
Moving straight in to the lovely main foyer
Looking directly up at the stunning ceiling
Moving through the corridors
Into an activity room where we find table-top football, a pool table and a piano. In total, we counted five pianos here
Heading upstairs where this appears to be a therapy room
There were lots of room with these beds, all the same so only including the one shot of them
Heading back down where we find the canteen. Surprisingly small considering the size of the school, however there may have been another in a part we didn't explore
Next up is the art block, the smells in here really took me back to my school days
A few random shots here
The only external I took
This was from a trip out with @Mikeymutt and Man Gone Wrong. The day started off as a failure as the place we planned to visit was a no go. Mikey mentioned he had recently heard about a lovely old school not too far away, so we gave it a visit.
It was a bit of a tough one to crack, walking onto the site, we saw a small group of people in the corner of the field, they definitely saw us, and a police car drove past us on the dead end road leading to the school so we wondered if they were anything to do with that. On top of that, there were fairly new security cameras and sensors on poles dotted around which had to be avoided. Luckily, we dodged these and managed to get to the building itself. The next problem was gaining access, we spent a good twenty minutes hunting but to no avail. Apparently Chris heard voices, so we waited it out for several minutes until it seemed they had moved on. Eventually Mikey found a way and got us all in. It was worth the effort, especially for that staircase. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to investigate the whole site, the dying November light can be blamed for that.
History
Ashdown House was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, an English-born architect who later emigrated to the United States of America. Ashdown House was his last work in England before emigrating, where he became the first formally fully trained professional architect in the United States. It was because of this that he eventually entered government office as the ‘Architect of the Capitol’. He was responsible for designing some of the key features of the White House and the Capitol building. The domes at Ashdown were described by some scholars as ‘miniature prototypes’ of those found at the Capitol.
Construction started on Ashdown House in June 1793 and it was completed on 18th March 1795 for the then owner of the 32-acre Estate, Trayton Fuller as their residence.
It was one of the first houses in England to be built in ‘Greek Revival’ architecture. This style became quite popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It took inspiration and key features from ancient Greek architecture, in particular the temples seen in Athens. Other examples of this design include the famous Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Old Royal High School in Edinburgh and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
The manor house remained in the ownership of the Fuller family until it was sold in 1876 for use as a preparatory school and it remained in use as a school until July 2020. It taught children between the ages of seven to thirteen and charged a fee of up to £10,000 per term.
The site consists of the main school building, a senior girl boarding building, junior girls boarding building, theatre and art block, science block, east wing boarding building, chapel, dining hall, pre-school, log cabin, sports barn, indoor swimming pool, cricket pavilion and tractor storage. There are also ten residential buildings on site for teachers and staff to live in. The main school building was given grade II* listed status on 26th November 1953
Of course, being a preparatory school and being in Sussex, there were a few notable former pupils including ‘Homeland’ actor Damien Lewis, ‘Question Time’ host and journalist Rachel Johnson, but most notably I’d say is former prime minister Boris Johnson. He attended from 1975, after moving back to the United Kingdom from Brussels after his mother had a nervous breakdown. While at Ashdown School, he developed interests in rugby, Ancient Greek and Latin. Eventually, he left Ashdown where he then moved on to Eton College in 1977.
The school closed down in 2020 during Covid and never reopened. Mainly due to pupil numbers dropping significantly, most likely due to parents lost income as a direct impact of the Covid 19 pandemic. It seems that the school was in financial difficulties before Covid, the closure may have also been in an attempt to consolidate some of the trusts debt. The whole site was sold off in November 2021 to a property development firm called Even Ashdown ltd, the figure of which varies depending what source you check, some say £4.75 million, one source mentioned £5.95 million!
Historical allegations
The history of the school does take a dark turn however. As with many others in the 70s, there are allegations of historical sexual abuse of pupils. These were investigated in 2013 by law firm Slater & Gordon. Former pupils recall how the environment of the school had been ‘spartan and unforgiving’ with boys being regularly punished with canings and other methods. Abuse at the school was most notably made public by journalist Alex Renton in his book Stiff Upper Lip, and a Radio 4 documentary he hosted.
In July 2014, former headmaster Clive Williams was interviewed by Sussex Police following allegations of sexual abuse and child neglect, however, after several months of investigations, including searches of his computer and personal documents, no charges were made.
Martin Haigh, a former teacher at Ashdown was convicted of eleven sex offences against children, and at the time of his arrest in 2016, having indecent images on his computer. Haigh committed the crimes between 1973 and 1975 to boys aged seven to twelve.
In January 2023, former teacher David Price was charged with three counts of indecent assault in the 1980s. He was arrested following an eleven-page account that was submitted to police in Cape Town by a former pupil of Western Province prep school where Price had been employed. The complainant came forward as a result of Alex Renton's book.
Future
There has been a planning application put in place for the site, mapping out plans to build 47 new dwellings. Locals seem to be strongly opposed to this. There are laminated letters all around the area and on telegraph poles on the road objecting to the plans. The letters state the access drive and pedestrian safety as key issues. I can understand why. The site is on a dead-end, single-track road with limited passing places. A large new development in this area would require improved infrastructure to support it. Checking online also finds that the development firm maybe trying to exploit loopholes and attempting to convert the main house to nine luxury duplex and triplex apartments, installing gyms, home cinemas and 16ft-wide lift shafts. An extract states “The south-east of England has a profound housing crisis, but this won’t be resolved by destroying internationally significant heritage to build expensive, high-carbon homes, at the end of 1000 metres of a winding single-lane road, with no prospect of a viable community, no access to local jobs, schools and GPs already at full capacity.”
The future of the building seems uncertain, judging by the backlash from the locals, they’re going to do everything in their power to block the development firm from doing what they wish. And with the building being listed too, hmm, can anyone feel an ‘accidental’ fire coming on soon....
Starting off with a photo of the front of the building from back in the early 1970s. I forgot to take a shot of the very front of the building, which is partially why I'm including this also.
Moving straight in to the lovely main foyer
Looking directly up at the stunning ceiling
Moving through the corridors
Into an activity room where we find table-top football, a pool table and a piano. In total, we counted five pianos here
Heading upstairs where this appears to be a therapy room
There were lots of room with these beds, all the same so only including the one shot of them
Heading back down where we find the canteen. Surprisingly small considering the size of the school, however there may have been another in a part we didn't explore
Next up is the art block, the smells in here really took me back to my school days
A few random shots here
The only external I took
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