| Westbrook Hay School | |
|---|---|
 Westbrook Hay School seen from the golf course | |
| Location | |
 | |
| , , HP1 2RF England | |
| Coordinates | 51°44′20″N0°30′57″W / 51.7388°N 0.5158°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Independent school |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Anglican Church of England |
| Campus size | 26 acres (11 ha) |
Westbrook Hay School is a culturally significant great house located in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, that has housed the independent Westbrook Hay Prep School since 1963.
Westbrook Hay was built in the 17th century and remained in the ownership of the Ryder family (Richard Ryder, then Granville Ryder and then Dudley Ryder) [1] until the Second World War, after which it became the headquarters of the Hemel Hempstead New Town Development corporation. [2]
A Grade II listed building on the National Heritage List for England, [3] Westbrook Hay School is in a rural location on 26 acres of parkland overlooking the Bourne valley, off the A41 between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. [4]
During the 1950s, the 590 m (650 yd) drive became the Westbrook Hay Hill Climb. [5] The building began housing a school in 1963, and it was listed on the National Heritage List in 1966 as "Westbrook Hay School". [3]
Westbrook Hay Prep School is a co-educational independent school for children from rising 3–16 years. Augustus Orlebar, a former housemaster at Radley College, established the school in 1892 in Bedford as a boarding school for boys. It moved to Hinwick House near Wellingborough shortly thereafter, when it was named "Hinwick House School", [6] and then to Gadebridge House in Hemel Hempstead in 1914. [7] The school remained there until the Commission for New Towns forced it out of those premises as part of the development of the new town in 1963. [8] That year the school moved to Westbrook Hay and took its present name. [4]
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south and Buckinghamshire to the west. The largest settlement is Watford, and the county town is Hertford.
Hemel Hempstead is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located 24 miles (39 km) north-west of London; nearby towns include Watford, St Albans and Berkhamsted. The population at the 2021 census was 95,961.
Apsley is a village in Hertfordshire, England, in a valley of the Chiltern Hills below the confluence of the River Gade and Bulbourne. It was the site of water mills serving local agriculture and from the early 19th century became an important centre for papermaking. Today it is a suburb of Hemel Hempstead.
Dacorum is a local government district with borough status in Hertfordshire, England. The council is based in Hemel Hempstead. The borough also includes the towns of Berkhamsted and Tring and surrounding villages. The borough had a population of 155,081 in 2021. Dacorum was created in 1974 and is named after the ancient hundred of Dacorum which had covered a similar area. The borough of Dacorum is the westernmost of Hertfordshire's ten districts. It borders St Albans, Three Rivers, Buckinghamshire and Central Bedfordshire.
Bovingdon is a village in Hertfordshire, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) south-west of Hemel Hempstead, and a civil parish within the local authority area of Dacorum. It forms the largest part of the ward of Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield, which had a population of 4,600 at the 2001 census, increasing to 9,000 at the 2011 Census.
Hemel Hempstead railway station lies in Boxmoor, on the western edge of the town of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. It is located 24+1⁄2 miles (39.4 km) north-west of London Euston on the West Coast Main Line. The station is managed by London Northwestern Railway, who operate its train services along with Southern.
Boxmoor is part of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. It is within the district of Dacorum and comprises mainly 19th-century housing and meadowland, with transport links from London to the Midlands. At the 2011 Census, the population of Boxmoor was included in the Dacorum ward of Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield.
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 name was used from the 1983 general election, when the Hemel Hempstead constituency was renamed "West Hertfordshire", to the 1997 general election, when the "Hemel Hempstead" name was restored.
Gadebridge Roman Villa, alternatively known as Gadebridge Park Roman Villa, is a ruined Roman villa in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England.
The Box Moor Trust is a charitable trust responsible for the management of nearly 500 acres of land within the parishes of Hemel Hempstead and Bovingdon, in Hertfordshire, England. The Trust was officially founded in 1594 in order to ensure that the land in the Boxmoor area remained free for residents to use and enjoy. As a result, almost all of the land that comprises the Box Moor Trust estate is open access, with just over a quarter being common land.
Warners End is a neighbourhood or district of Hemel Hempstead, a new town in Hertfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census the population of the District was included in the Chaulden and Warner's End ward of Dacorum Council. It was the fourth of the new districts built during the expansion of Hemel Hempstead into a new town with work on its construction commencing in 1953.
Raphael Bjayou is a British entrepreneur and television presenter who was fired in week 9 during series four of The Apprentice (UK).
The Westbrook Hay Hill Climb was an annual motorsports event near Hemel Hempstead in England, where drivers competed on an uphill course. The Herts County Automobile & Aero Club held the first Westbrook Hay speed hillclimb in 1953, and organised all events there until the course closed in 1962. Between 1959 and 1962 the track hosted four rounds of the British Hill Climb Championship.
Gadebridge is a district of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, UK, located north west of Hemel Hempstead old town. It was developed in the 1960s on land that once formed part of the grounds of Gadebridge House.
Gadebridge House was a country house at Gadebridge in Hertfordshire.
The Bury is a building of historical significance in Hemel Hempstead in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It was erected in about 1790 by an attorney who worked in the town. It was the residence for the next two centuries of many notable people. It is now owned by the Dacorum Borough Council and is Grade II* listed.
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.
Gadebridge Park is an urban park in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England.
The Charter Tower is a Grade II* listed building in Gadebridge Park, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. The two-storey tower, built of ashlar, is the entranceway and all that remains of the former manor house of Sir Richard Combe, and his arms may still be seen on the tower.