Pennthorpe School
| Address | |
|---|---|
Church Street, Rudgwick, West Sussex RH12 3HJ UK | |
| Coordinates | 51°05′14″N 0°27′09″W / 51.08726°N 0.45244°WCoordinates: 51°05′14″N 0°27′09″W / 51.08726°N 0.45244°W ⧼validator-fatal-error⧽ |
| Information | |
| Type | Independent |
| Motto | Non nobis solum nati (Not for us alone) |
| Established | 1930 |
| Founders | Mr Herbert Braby and Mr Sidney Braby |
| Chairman | Mrs Julie Kapsalis |
| Head teacher | Mrs Alexia Bolton |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Age range | 2 - 13 |
| Enrollment | c.300 |
| Average class size | 14 |
| Houses | Gaskyns, Pallinghurst, Baynards & Tismans |
| Color(s) | Blue & Gold |
| Website | https://www.pennthorpe.com |
Pennthorpe is a co-educational independent preparatory day school for children ages 2 to 13 years..[1][2]. The school is located in the heart of the village of Rudgwick, along the Surrey/Sussex border. The school is situated just 8 miles from Horsham, 5 miles from Cranleigh and 12 miles from Guildford, and serves almost 300 children from these towns as well as those living in the surrounding rural areas and villages.
The campus is arranged around an original late 19th century house, 'Gaskyns', within 26 acres of the original Gaskyns estate, now comprising other school buildings, sports fields and woodlands.
The school was founded in 1930, in Chislehurst, Kent, by Herbert Wilson Braby and his brother Sidney Gerald Braby. Since 1891, the building has been an educational establishment, but it was sold to the Braby brothers in 1930 as Pennthorpe Preparatory School for Boys (the original building now houses Mead Road Infant School)[3][4]. The school was evacuated to West Sussex at the outbreak of the second world war. On route to Rudgwick, Pennthorpe did set up temporarily in East Grinstead for just half a term, then moved on to Gibbons Mill in Rudgwick, then on to its current site of the original Gaskyns house and estate in 1949[5][6].
The name, Pennthorpe, comes from the original name of the school's first building in Kent, designed by Ernest George c. 1890.
The School[edit]
The Braby brothers chose Pennthorpe's motto as “non nobis solum nati“: “born not for ourselves alone“. It derives from a sentence in Cicero’s treatise On Duties (Latin: De Officiis). The full sentence reads: “non nobis solum nati sumus ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici” (“Not for us alone are we born; our country, our friends, have a share in us”; De Officiis, 1:22). This motto still stands today.
Originally a boarding school for boys, girls were also admitted from 1977, and Pennthorpe's boarding facility closed in 1995. Since then, the school has continued to admit both boys and girls purely as day pupils.
The Braby connection with Rudgwick[edit]
Pennthorpe's founders and original headmasters, Herbert and Sidney Braby, were great-grandsons of James Braby (1773-1846) and Hannah Weller of Abinger[7]; James was a Rudgwick benefactor and landowner, and from a long line of Brabys who were lay rectors of Rudgwick Church, include the first chair of the Rudgwick parish council and credited for bringing a railway station to Rudgwick on Braby land.[8]
Pennthorpe on Church Street[edit]
Pennthorpe's current home is Church Street, Rudgwick[9].
Headteachers[edit]
- Mr Herbert and Mr Sidney Braby, 1930 - 1955
- Mr Dennis ‘Chalky’ White, 1955 - 1974
- Reverend John Spencer, 1974 - 1996
- Mr Steven Moll, 1996 - 2013
- Mr Matthew King, 2013 - 2016
- Mr Neil Jones, 2016 - 2017
- Mrs Alexia Bolton, 2017 - present
Connections with its roots[edit]
Pennthorpe's pupils are divided into four houses, the names of each connect the children to the roots of the school's current location in Rudgwick; Pallinghurst (blue) is named for the Pallinghurst estate[10], now the home of the Rikkyo Japanese School in Rdugwick; Baynards (red) is named for the now privately owned Baynards Park[11]; Gaskyns (green) is named for the original house within which the school is now homed; and Tismans (yellow) is named for Tisman's Common and the original Tisman's Estate[12]. All of these estates provided most of the local employment in agricultural activities in the 19th century.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Home - Pennthorpe Prep and Pre-Prep School in West Sussex". Pennthorpe. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
- ↑ "Pennthorpe School - GOV.UK". www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
- ↑ https://www.chislehurst-society.org.uk/PDFs/LocalHistory/PennthorpeMeadRoad%20(print).pdf
- ↑ "Mead Road Infant School - Our History". meadroadinfantschool.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-27.
- ↑ https://rudgwick.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/autumn-2012-newsletter.pdf
- ↑ https://rudgwick.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/spring-2013-newsletter.pdf
- ↑ https://rudgwick.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/autumn-2011-newsletter.pdf
- ↑ https://rudgwick-rps.org.uk/stran-smiths-history-of-rudgwick/the-brabys-of-maybanks/
- ↑ "Old Rudgwick, the Village". Rudgwick Preservation Society. 2014-01-22. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
- ↑ "Pallinghurst Farm House, Cranleigh - 1189633 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
- ↑ "BAYNARDS PARK MANSION, Ewhurst - 1044362 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
- ↑ "TISMANS, Rudgwick - 1354185 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
External Links[edit]
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