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Pre-School House
Just how old is Twyford School? We can not be at all certain, though a school existed in Twyford from sometime in the latter part of the seventeenth century. This was a Catholic foundation and provided pupils for a senior school based in nearby Silkstead. One of these was Alexander Pope, the greatest English poet of the early eighteenth century. The school flourished in Twyford, in all probability based in the house known as Segar’s Buildings, until the Jacobite rebellions of 1745 and then, exactly what happened is lost in the mists of time.
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| Alexander Pope |
The removal of the Catholic school probably left premises suitably equipped for use as a Protestant school and, though nothing is known for certain until 1793, a book of Latin grammar was discovered many years ago inscribed “Twyford School, 1775”. Certainly, Segar’s Buildings were sold in 1793 to a Mr. Meader who let it to a Mr. Hannington “for a school for the sons of Middle Class Persons”. Mr. Hannington died towards the end of the century and his widow seems to have tried to keep the school in existence until it was purchased by the Revd. L. M. Stretch, vicar of Twyford. Mr. Stretch extended the vicarage to house some of the boys, but most of the school remained at Segar’s Buildings.
1809 - 1909
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| School House |
In 1809 Mr. Stretch obtained the lease on what is now the front part of the present school house. He had been assisted in the teaching of the boys by his nephew, the Revd. Liscombe Clarke. Mr. Clarke was installed in school house and, ultimately, removed the whole school from Segar’s Buildings to the one site. The house, much smaller than that now occupied by the school, was a three storey Queen Anne or early Georgian building; it may well have been a dower house to Twyford House on the other side of the road.
Almost immediately, Mr. Clarke started to increase the size of the accommodation, adding a range of buildings to the north west of the house and, in all probability, the present Common Room as a school room with a dormitory above. Above that, was a long low attic which traditionally had bars along one side and which was called “the prison”. Whether this room was ever used for this purpose is, unfortunately, unknown!
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| Portrait of Revd Bedford |
In 1815, the Revd. Liscombe Clarke departed for Salisbury, where he became a Canon and Archdeacon. Twyford School passed into the hands of the Revd. James Gower Bedford, a Fellow of New College, Oxford. Mr. Bedford purchased land to the north of the old boundary and ground to the east of it as far as Bourne Lane. Next, he considerably enlarged the school itself, pulling down an old coach house and building a large classroom (the present Boarders’ Drawing Room) which was used for some time as a dining-hall. To the east of this, and separated from it by a large courtyard, he built a large school hall which we know as the Upper School. This was later connected with the main school buildings with a passage or Cloister with windows on the north side. Finally, Bedford built a brew house separated from the main school and situated along the main road to the west. Part of this was also used as a laundry and as stabling for a pony used for school errands and for drawing water from the “pony well” which lay between the brew house and the school. Bedford seems to have had Winchester College in mind when developing the school; the furnishings in Upper School – a headmaster’s throne with adjacent cupboard for the whipping stool and canes, humbler seats for assistant masters and large fixed desks for the boys – were an almost exact miniature of those in “School” at Winchester.
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| The Slate |
At the back of Upper School was, and still is, the “slate” where misdemeanours – “tardus”, “ineptus” or the more serious “inurbanus” could be recorded. Numbers during Revd. Bedford’s tenure rose from thirty seven in 1815 to fifty when he retired in 1833, having suffered increasing blindness in his latter years. Probably the most eminent pupil at this time was Thomas Hughes, who came to Twyford in 1830. He went on to become a lawyer, politician and author, most famous for his novel “Tom Brown's School Days”, a semi-autobiographical work written in 1857.
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| Thomas Hughes |
Bedford’s successor in 1833 was the first of a series of Wickham headmasters, the Revd. Robert Wickham. He had joined the Twyford staff in 1818, left to take a degree at Christ Church, Oxford in 1820 and returned to Twyford on his marriage in 1831. Life at Twyford School continued much as it had done under Bedford: the school year consisted of two terms with six week breaks around Christmas and from about 20th June. Robert Wickham retired in 1847 to become Archdeacon of St. Asaph and passed on the headship to his second master the Revd. J. C. Roberts. During his tenure the school declined and, in 1854, he retired to become incumbent of a parish.
Although the reign of Roberts’ successor lasted only seven years, the Revd. George William Kitchin was to prove himself one of the most remarkable headmasters of that period. Numbers alone show how Twyford prospered; Kitchin took over a school of under forty boys and left it with over seventy.
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| Revd George Kitchin |
Kitchin developed a curriculum that was very modern for its day; music, drawing, history, geography and French all appear on the timetable. More surprisingly, Kitchin encouraged the boys to put on musical performances and plays, led rambling and climbing expeditions and even involved the boys in the building of the cloister leading to his new schoolroom. This hall, the present Old Dining Room, was constructed in 1858 on top of the old brew house. It was intended as a schoolroom, but had become a dining room by 1860 with the brew house below converted into kitchens. No sooner had Kitchin completed his new schoolroom than he decided to hold a concert there. Amongst the five adults and nine children who took part was a young Hubert Parry, who had only recently joined the school.
Kitchin had a real interest in the natural world, in the weather and science in general. He started a series of lectures at the school, which included talks on elementary science, geology and human anatomy. He also showed a great interest in early photography and invited his friend from Christ Church, Charles L. Dodgson (“Lewis Carroll”) to the school where he took photographs of Kitchin, some of his staff and many of the pupils. Other photographs of pupils were taken by a member of staff, Reginald Southey, who had persuaded Dodgson to take up photography. He went on to become a very eminent physician.
In 1861, George Kitchin made the decision to leave Twyford and return to Oxford. He later served as Dean of Winchester, then Durham, and was the first Chancellor of the University of Durham. He died in 1912.
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| The Chapel |
In 1862, the Revd. Latham Wickham, who had been one of Kitchin’s pupils at Oxford and who had been on the Twyford staff under Kitchin for eighteen months, was made the next headmaster. He is credited with providing a proper cricket ground at Twyford School. He also added to the school buildings: the Matron’s Room, West Room, the school’s first gymnasium on the site of the old “inner court” and, most importantly, the school chapel. Latham Wickham designed and built the chapel in 1869. Until this time, school services had been held in the Old Dining Room, and in Twyford Parish Church every Sunday. The chapel was dedicated on June 24 th 1869, the sermon being preached by the former headmaster, the Very Revd. G.W. Kitchin, Dean of Winchester. About a year and a half later Mr. J.C. Heriz Smith, then Second Master, gave the organ – like that in the parish church, built by the famous organ builders, J.W. Walker and Sons. In 1887, Latham’s health began to deteriorate and he decided to hand over to his second son, Charles.
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| The Organ |
The Revd. Charles Wickham was only 26 years old when he became headmaster in 1887. He inherited a school with falling numbers and faced with real competition from other prep schools. Charles Wickham made immediate changes. These included the first regular matches against other schools from 1888. From 1890, Charles Wickham took into partnership Mr. H. Strahan, who had been his headmaster in his first teaching post in Aylesbury and who had joined the Twyford staff under Latham Wickham as Second Master. In 1893, three new classrooms were built in the former “inner court” filled by the gymnasium. At about the same time the old Upper School was fitted out as a gymnasium to replace the old one. Early in 1895 a fund was raised to carry out additions to the chapel. These included the extension of the chapel at the west end to include an ante-chapel and the provision of a small vestry. The chapel was re-dedicated by the Bishop of Guildford on June 25 th, 1895. Also in 1895, Mr. M. Bethune, assisted by Revd. G. Heywood, published the first edition of the school magazine, “The Twyfordian”. Charles Wickham
constructed “Serle’s Hill” (known today as “Searle’s Hill”) in 1896-97, initially as a school sanatorium. It is now in use as Twyford’s Pre-Prep department. However, before it could be completed the school was hit by an epidemic of diphtheria.
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| Searle's Hill (Pre-Prep) |
1896 was a dreadful year for the school, during which three boys died. Convalescents were moved to Hayling Island, while those who had escaped infection moved to Westfields in Winchester. The school moved back to Twyford only to have another, smaller, outbreak of diphtheria. Eventually, in 1897, the school moved to Emsworth House, Copthorne, near East Grinstead for a year while a complete reconstruction of the old school buildings was undertaken. Confidence in the school had taken a battering during those two years and, when the school reopened to the sound of the bells of Twyford Parish Church on 20th January, 1898, there were only thirty three boys on the roll.
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| St Nicholas (West Window of Chapel) |
Latham Wickham, who had built the chapel, died in 1901. In 1903, a new west window was dedicated in his memory. This was the work of the renowned pre-Raphaelite stained-glass artist and Old Twyfordian, C.E. Kempe. In the four lights are the figures of St. Christopher, with the child Christ on his shoulders crossing the river; St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children; St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the chapel; and William of Wykeham, a patron of education and theoretical ancestor of the Wickham family. A memorial to Revd. G. Heywood, assistant master at Twyford was also dedicated in 1903; it consists of copies by Franceschi of ten of Fra Angelico’s famous set of angels painted on wooden panels and framed, four in the stonework of the reredos and the other six in oak panelling around the sides of the sanctuary.
In 1907 the Upper School was restored to its former glory and a new gymnasium built in a ‘temporary’ building which was to see service over many years. Upper School was again altered in 1911 when the stage was extended twelve feet to the north as a memorial to Charles Wickham’s wife, Flora.
1909 - 1959
The Revd. Charles Wickham retired as headmaster in 1910. He handed over the reins to Mr. Harold C. McDonnell, an Old Twyfordian, who inherited a school of sixty nine boys. He made a number of additions to the school, including the levelling of ground to make a new football pitch below the old barley field. This was achieved by the autumn of 1914. At about the same time it was decided to install a covered swimming pool at the school; the stretch of the River Itchen used until this time for swimming soon fell into disuse. On January 20th, 1923, the War Memorial Library was opened; the £3154 required being raised by a long list of Twyfordian and other subscribers.
McDonell, a Cambridge blue who played cricket for Surrey and Hampshire, was intensely conservative and rather moody. He disliked anything modern or scientific and refused to install gas-lighting in the dormitories or WCs in the school. Even after electricity came to the village, “Donnie” would only have it in certain parts of the school. Not surprisingly, the school began to pay the price for this austerity and numbers in the school declined rapidly to thirty seven pupils.
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| Twyford School 1941 |
In 1937, McDonell decided to retire and the headship was taken by the Revd. Robert Wickham, who had inherited the ownership of the school in 1928 on the death of Charles Wickham, his uncle. Bob Wickham managed to reorganise the school curriculum, establishing a proper balance between the various subjects. On the surface, life for the boys at Twyford during the Second World War went on almost as if times were normal. There were of course the nights spent in the air raid shelter, the constant shortages of equipment, rationing, and staffing problems caused by the call-up. The end of the war was marked by a simple Thanksgiving Service in the chapel. Numbers by this time had actually risen to over sixty, but very little had been done to the premises and there was a long list of improvements needing to be made. In 1946 it was decided that a Hobbies Room would be built, which was eventually completed in 1949 and became a very popular part of the school.
In 1955, with numbers on the school roll well over seventy, Bob Wickham decided to hand over the school to a school Trust. He felt strongly that the future of the school was vital and that it was dangerous to allow its fate to depend solely on one individual. The school continued to thrive, science was introduced onto the curriculum and Twyford became a trial school for Nuffield Biology. The Hobbies Room was later converted into the school’s first science laboratory.
1959 - 2009
1959 was the school’s Jubilee year, celebrated by a dinner in London and, for the boys, a trip to the Royal Tournament in London. It was decided not to have an appeal at that time, but generous parents and friends presented the school with a new pavilion and a refurbishment of the Old Dining Room. In 1961, Bob Wickham’s son, David, and his wife, Jenny joined the staff. It was the intention that David Wickham would take over the school on Bob’s retirement. This happened in 1963, in the year that Bob Wickham was appointed as Chairman of the IAPS Council. He stayed on in the school as chaplain and teacher, and served a further year as IAPS Chairman.
In 1968, an appeal was launched for a new Science Room block, with a carpentry workshop, language laboratory and five music practice rooms. Other projects at this time included a new changing room and laundry in the main school building, with matrons’ rooms and surgery above, and the laying down of the two hard tennis courts to the west of Mallard’s Close.
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| David Wickham |
1977 was the year when “day boys” were first admitted and, incidentally, the year when David and Jenny Wickham’s two daughters were accepted “as a special case”. The only other girl to have been educated up to that point had been Kathleen White, the daughter of General White of Mallard’s Close, early in the century. 1978 saw the start of another appeal. This resulted in the building of a new dining room between the changing room and the Old Dining Room; it was completed in 1981 and, in tribute to the long service given to the school by the Wickham family, it was named the Wickham Hall. In the same year, the school purchased its first computers and the Governing Body discussed the possibility of becoming co-educational.
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| Douglas Hurd |
David Wickham retired as headmaster in 1983, to be replaced by Mr. Richard Gould. Within a short period of time, a house (“Stablecross”) was built to allow the school to redevelop “Serles Hill” as the Pre-Prep department, opened in 1985. Soon after this, “Mallards Close” was sold to finance some major new developments and in 1988 the west courtyard was built with ten new classrooms. At the same time, a new Sports Hall and Swimming Pool were constructed, and these were opened in 1989 by the Rt. Hon. Douglas Hurd CBE MP, one of our most illustrious former pupils.
The new classroom block was extended in 1992 when two further classrooms and a purpose built music school were constructed. A Girls’ Boarding Pavilion (converted in 2008 into two mathematics classrooms) and a Pre-Prep Assembly Hall were both built in 1994, followed by a Computer, Art, and Technology Block in 1996. This last project was officially opened by Richard Gould in 1998. In 1995-96, the chapel was renovated in memory of Rev. R.G. Wickham.
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| Computer, Art & Technology Block |
Richard Gould left Twyford in 1996 to join the staff at Sherborne School. His successor was Mr. Philip Fawkes, who came to Twyford School from Lathallan School in Scotland. Philip continued the building programme with the construction of a new Science Block, opened in 1999 by Professor Richard Dawkins of Oxford University. This new building has a number of changing rooms and associated storage areas on the ground floor and two laboratories, a computer room and a science store and office above. Philip Fawkes left in early 2002 and there followed a short interregnum during which the Deputy Head, Mr. Greg Bishop, was Acting Headmaster.
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| Saxon Court |
Dr David Livingstone, appointed Headmaster in 2003, continued to develop the school and prepare it for the twenty first century. An all-weather pitch or "Astroturf" was constructed on the south section of the "Barley Field", and was opened by Robert Moore (OT and GB hockey player) in 2007. Also in 2007, in the early stages of building a new block of classrooms and changing rooms for the top year of the school, a number of Saxon graves containing eighteen bodies were discovered. These rooms, in use from 2008, were completed after an archaeological investigation and are now known as "Saxon Court". This was officially opened by Professor Freeman Dyson (OT and Professor Emeritus of Princeton University in February, 2009). Also in 2008, a new Pre-Prep Classroom was built on the site of the old bike shed, and a lease was taken out on Home Close Field which, after some smoothing and reseeding, gave the school a further six acres of new sports fields.
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| Walter Congreve |
The biggest change in recent years, however, has been the move of Year 3 from the Pre-Prep into the Prep School and the expansion of Pre-Prep to a two form entry. This has been prompted, in part, by the end of "full" boarding in 2005 though, of course, "weekly" and "flexi" boarding arrangements continue to thrive. Indeed, all the boarding accommodation has been completely restructured and refurbished in the last two years. In May 2008, the School announced the introduction of a number of bursaries to provide free weekly boarding places to children each year whose parents would not otherwise be able to afford the fees. These have been named the "Congreve Awards" in honour of Old Twyfordian, General Sir Walter Congreve VC KCB MVO who was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in the face of the enemy in 1899 at the Battle of Colenso, South Africa.
Dr Livingstone left in July 2009 to take up another Headship. He was replaced by Dr Steve Bailey, a Senior Housemaster from Winchester College and an extremely experienced educationalist as well as a renowned Olympic historian.
By the end of 2009, Twyford School was enjoying its strongest enrolment in history, with some 380 pupils from 3 to 13 years of age, boys and girls, boarders and day pupils. It is a friendly, family-orientated school that aims to offer an all-round, top-rate education with a Christian ethos, much as it has done for over two centuries.
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| Twyford School 2008 |
This photograph has been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be re-ordered by visiting www.gsarchive.co.uk or by calling 01869 328200.
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Text by Andrew Keeling (2008), with extensive material from “Shades of the Prison House” by Revd. Bob Wickham (1986) and “ Twyford School - A Timeline” by Dr. David Livingstone.
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