The Old Ride School

The Old Ride School (previously called The Old Ride Preparatory School) was an independent school, founded by its first headmaster, the Reverend Toby Flynn, at Little Horwood, Buckinghamshire, between Buckingham and what is now Milton Keynes, which was later at Bradford on Avon.

In 1959, the school's buildings at Little Horwood were needed by British Railways and the school moved to "Kingwell Court" (now called Frankleigh House), a substantial seventeenth century country house on the northern outskirts of Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. The new location for the school was already the home of a separate boys' preparatory school and the two schools merged. Initially, the Old Ride schoolboys wore red school caps while the Kingwell Court boys kept their purple caps.

The Rev. Toby Flynn was succeeded as headmaster by his son, Mark Flynn, and girls were admitted to the school in 1982. In the late 1980s the school began to specialize in disadvantaged and problem children.

The school closed in 1990 when attendance figures dropped dramatically, following adverse inspection reports.

A Rudolph Steiner school, 'The Orchard School', occupied one part of the site until it was forced to relocate to Holt due to financial difficulties.

The buildings were left in a state of disrepair until a group of families purchased the freehold on the property 1995. The buildings are now home to over ten families in individually owned apartments.

In 2002, one of the teachers, Peter Hamilton-Leggett, was charged with molesting several students in the 1970s. [ [http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=72401669077195&mkt=en-US&lang=en-US&w=5e98ae16&FORM=CVRE Police used Friends Reunited to help jail teacher for child abuse] by Colin Blackstock in The Guardian June 18, 2003 (accessed 11 December 2007)]

The students worked on a plus and minus system for good and bad behavoir, both academically and personally. Students who would receive "100 pluses" would go on the Plus Outing with the headmaster, his wife and several other deserving students.

Students carried a comb and handkerchief with them at all times.

Footnotes

Wiltshire Schools