Beechwood Park School | |
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Address | |
Markyate St Albans , Hertfordshire , AL3 8AW United Kingdom | |
Coordinates | 51°49′09″N0°29′05″W / 51.81917°N 0.48477°W Coordinates: 51°49′09″N0°29′05″W / 51.81917°N 0.48477°W |
Information | |
Type | Preparatory day and boarding |
Religious affiliation(s) | Church of England |
Established | 1964 |
Local authority | Hertfordshire |
Department for Education URN | 117620 Tables |
Headmaster | Edward Balfour |
Gender | Coeducational |
Age | 3to 13 |
Enrolment | c.550 pupils |
Houses | 4 |
Colour(s) | Navy Blue, Maroon |
Website | http://www.beechwoodpark.com |
Beechwood Park was a mansion, near Markyate, Hertfordshire, England. It now houses Beechwood Park School.
Ralph de Tony held this site, in the manor of Flamstead, as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. [1] As King of England, William the Conqueror would have expected this new Lord of the Manor to protect St Albans Abbey and its pilgrims. Ralph de Tony's grandson Roger IV de Toesny then founded a Benedictine nunnery, St Giles in the Wood Priory, Flamstead, in the middle of the 12th century. [2] The Dissolution of the Monasteries resulted in the destruction of the nunnery of St Giles in 1537. [2]
The Manor House on the site was used frequently by Henry VIII and later by Edward VI. In 1537, the site was let to Sir John Tregonwell by Henry VIII. Shortly afterwards, however, the king granted it by Letters Patent dated 30 September 1539, to Richard Page and Dame Elizabeth. [3]
The property subsequently passed first to George Ferrers, and then in 1628 to Thomas Saunders of Long Marston. In 1698 his great granddaughter Anne Saunders married Sir Edward Sebright, who belonged to a wealthy Worcestershire family, establishing a family connection for the next two and a half centuries. [4] One of six children, only Anne herself survived childhood. A monument in St Leonard's Church, Flamstead, is a memorial attributed to William Stanton (c.1690) to the early death of her brothers and sisters. Edward Sebright moved from Worcestershire to his bride's home in Hertfordshire, and set about transforming the Tudor building that he found there. [4]
Further changes (e.g. the addition of much of the façade and of the two wings) were made in the 18th century; a Library was added at the start of the 19th century, and the courtyard covered over in 1854 (it is now the Great Hall). In 1880 the tenant was Mr W.B. Greenfield, who established there in that year one of the three leading herds of pedigree Aberdeen Angus cattle in England. [5] In 1908 he was the tenant of Haynes Park, Bedfordshire. [6]
The Sebrights fell on hard times after World War I, and eventually relinquished the estate. The Second World War brought changes to Beechwood. Firstly the Sebright family, with the requisitioning of the house by the government, moved into a smaller house that they owned, nearby. The main house became the headquarters for Spillers Foods, which had evacuated from London. An airfield was built in the grounds to land damaged or obsolete planes. Specially constructed hangars were used to house these planes and care was taken to camouflage the strip and the hangars. At the end of the war the house first became a girls' school, which eventually closed in 1961 due to lack of funds. [7] A new preparatory school was opened in 1964 which continues to this day. [8]
Beechwood Park School, also familiarly referred to as "Beechwood", is a co-educational independent day and flexi boarding school in Hertfordshire in England, UK for children from nursery age to year 8. It is set on the site of an old mansion house with extensions put in over the last 50 years including the junior school, middle school, sports hall and performance hall. Most recent developments include the new onsite Woodlands Nursery, which opened in September 2015 and also the covered swimming pool complex, officially opened by the swimmer Karen Pickering in July 2015. [9]
Beechwood Park School was formed in 1964 by the amalgamation of two much older prep schools, Shirley House (in Watford) and Heath Brow School (in Hemel Hempstead). [10] By 1961 the buildings and estate of Beechwood Park were in a terrible state of neglect and disrepair. It was apparently close to demolition when it went on the market in 1961. The Stewart family who owned Shirley House put in a successful bid and decided to restore it. Shortly afterwards Group Captain Peter Stewart (the brother of a former Head of Shirley House) became Estates Manager of Beechwood, and he is regarded as the present school's true founder. [8] The school's first headmaster was Alan Mould. [11] The school roll has since increased to about 530 pupils. [11] Pupils at the school are divided into four houses, named Tudor, Saunders, Sebright and Stewart in homage to the history of the school and its buildings. [11]
From its opening in 1964 the school enrolled only boys and was known as "Beechwood Park Preparatory School for Boys". In September 1993 the school enrolled girls for the first time and became coeducational. [12]
The school was used as a location for the film The Dirty Dozen in 1967. [13]
The school was the subject of the 1967 song "Beechwood Park" by St. Albans band the Zombies on their Odessey and Oracle album. The song's writer and Zombies' guitarist, Chris White lived at nearby Markyate. [14]
Hertfordshire is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For government statistical purposes, it forms part of the East of England region.
Hemel Hempstead is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, 24 miles (39 km) northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Nicholas Walter Lyell, Baron Lyell of Markyate, PC, QC was an English Conservative politician, known for much of his active political career as Sir Nicholas Lyell.
The Borough of Dacorum is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England that includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and Kings Langley. The district, which was formed in 1974, had a population of 137,799 in 2001. Its name was taken from the old hundred of Dacorum which covered approximately the same area. It is the westernmost of Hertfordshire's districts, being bordered to the west by the Chiltern and Aylesbury Vale districts of Buckinghamshire.
Markyate is a village and civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, close to the border with Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
Hemel Hempstead is a constituency in Hertfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system. Since 2005, it has been represented by Mike Penning, a member of the Conservative Party.
Caddington is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. It is between the Luton/Dunstable urban area, and Hertfordshire.
Hemel Hempstead Rural District was a rural district in Hertfordshire, England from 1894 to 1974.
Flamstead is a village and civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, England, close to the junction of the A5 and the M1 motorway at junction 9. The name is thought by some historians to be a corruption of the original Verulamstead.
West Hertfordshire was a parliamentary constituency in Hertfordshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by the first past the post system. The constituency was abolished for the 1997 general election.
Ballingdon Bottom is a valley in Hertfordshire, England. It forms part of the boundary between the civil parishes of Flamstead and Great Gaddesden.
Sir John Saunders Sebright, 7th Baronet,, of Besford, Worcestershire, and Beechwood Park, Hertfordshire, was an English politician and agricultural innovator.
Great Gaddesden is a village and civil parish in Dacorum Hundred in Hertfordshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, north of Hemel Hempstead. The parish borders Flamstead, Hemel Hempstead, Nettleden and Little Gaddesden and also Studham in Bedfordshire.
Markyate Priory was a Benedictine priory in Bedfordshire, England. It was established in 1145 and disestablished in 1537.
Beechwood Park may refer to:
Dacorum Heritage (DH) is a local history advocacy group in the United Kingdom. It collects and records the history of the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, in the south of England, and aims to encourage the appreciation of the heritage of Dacorum.
Sir Thomas Sebright, 4th Baronet (1692–1736) of Beechwood Park was an ENglish landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1736. Sebright was born on 11 May 1692, the eldest son of Sir Edward Sebright, 3rd Baronet of Besford, Worcestershire and his wife Anne Saunders, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Saunders of Beechwood, Hertfordshire. He succeeded his father in the baronetcy on 15 December 1702. He matriculated at Jesus College, Oxford on 3 June 1705
Markyate Rural District was a short-lived rural district in Hertfordshire, England from 1894 to 1897, on the borders with Bedfordshire.