Heatherdown Preparatory School

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Heatherdown was a preparatory school in the civil parish of Winkfield, near Ascot, in the English county of Berkshire.

The school was set in thirty acres of grounds and its former pupils included:
*Prince Andrew, Duke of York
*Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
*David Cameron
*Sir Edward Fielden
*Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne
*Victor Hely-Hutchinson
*Angus Ogilvy
*James Ogilvy
*George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews

It closed in 1982. The site is now occupied by the [http://www.lvs.ascot.sch.uk/ Licensed Victuallers' School] .

History

Here is a bit of history from someone who went to the school from 1963 to 1968.

Headmasters were Harry Day. Warner followed by James V Edwards, who remained until the school closed.

I heard that day it closed was ghastly.

The sports day in mid-Summer ended with prize giving. It usually took place in the middle of the Summer Term when, traditionally, a mini holiday of a few days took place. None of the parents or boys knew that at the end of the prize giving the headmaster would stand up and announce that the school was to close immediately and the parents would have to remove their children there and then to find some other place to continue their education.

In the 1960s, it was still a rigidly run school with the day being controlled by bells. The level of discipline would seem quite extraordinary to a modern school. One term, the headmaster decided that we could only go home on two Sundays for the whole period; that experiment did not last long. . We used to look out of the large plate glass sash windows from our classrooms with great envy, with walls a shade of lunatic asylum green, over to the grass lawns and pitches where Mr Selwood would sit on his Dennis Motor Mower, as we wrestled with our Latin translations. We were so delighted as a term drew to a close that for the last ten days or so a suppressed form of anarchy seemed to break out; 'end of termishness' was frowned on, but it seemed as if we were being released from captivity.

Although all this sounds intolerable, we did not know anything else, and took it as if it had to go on like the passing of time. Masters included Mr Withers, Mr Toppin, Mr Bromley Martin, Mr Johnson, Mr Mountford and of course 'Ed', or Mr Edwards, the headmaster.

We lived there, almost totally cut off from the World, indeed, we were unaware of the Cuban Missile Crisis when it happened. Many stories about this strange place persist. Some are utterly untrue, but it was true that during Sports day there were, indeed, three types of lavatory. One for ladies, one for gents and one, close to the woodwork shed, for Chauffeurs. This lavatory was so unpleasant that the boys preferred to use the changing room lavatories rather than push open its battered green door.

The main corridor was lined from about three feet up the the ceiling with pictures of past boys. There were hundreds of these and they entirely covered the upper part of the walls for the whole length of the main passage which was about eighty feet long. This strange tradition was still going on in the late 1960s and dated back to before the first World War.

Not in the list above, but who attended the school, was Jigme Wanchuck the later King of Bhutan. He was sent to the school at a time when it appeared Red China might invade Bhutan. He was a pleasant fellow.

A few boys had a bad time there. Others thrived, but as with all children, some do well in one type of school and others do well elsewhere. The modern fixation that one type of schooling will suit all children was as wrong then as it is now. Some of the more able boys in what we called the sixth form were learning Ancient Greek, French, Latin, and the usual subjects often at the age of eleven. Others were doing almost equally well at sports. However for those of us who were neither sporting or particularly academic, our lives were little rewarded and in some cases, those who were not willing to conform, were bullied by the other boys appallingly. Fortunately, it appears this was not a endemic as in other schools.

It was an experience that I shall never ever forget...it its attempt to control and mould into conformity the minds of small boys it succeeded for the most part, but there remains a small band of us who reacted very differently. Such places both create conformists and subversives; such discipline focuses the mind and where it is strong and independent, such places amplify future radical thought in what would otherwise be a submissive and desperately conservative ruling class.

I have no doubt whatsoever that most of the children who went to that school were radically changed by the experience, many, most likely, for the better. Ex-Heatherdown boys were so influenced by the experience that they often re-visted the school as if reviewing something they had not really come to terms with.