Ashdown House, East Sussex

History

Ashdown House was given its name by John Trayton Fuller upon his purchase of the site, by Act of Parliament, for £10,000 in 1793. The land had previously comprised the Manor of Lavertye, first recorded in 1285. In 1597, it was part of the Buckhurst estate, a house of brick and Horsham stone with "... several courtyards, gardens, orchards, closes, rooms, two old dwelling houses, and a great barn."

As a school

The school was founded in Brighton in 1843 as a boys' school and moved to Ashdown House in 1886. It first became co-educational in 1975. The last headmaster, from September 2019 to June 2020, was Hilary Phillips, previously of the prep school of Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls.

Historic abuse allegations

Allegations by multiple former pupils of physical and sexual abuse in the 1970s, investigated by law firm Slater & Gordon in 2013, were followed by widespread recollections from former pupils that the regime at the school in the late 20th century had been spartan and unforgiving, with boys or entire classes regularly punished with canings. Abuse at the school is much of the subject of former pupil Alex Renton's book Stiff Upper Lip and his BBC Radio 4 documentary In Dark Corners, and is referred to in the memoirs of Andrew Mitchell.

In July 2014, Clive Williams, who was headmaster from 1975 to 2003, was interviewed by Sussex Police following allegations of sexual assault and child neglect. A computer and documents were taken from his home for examination. He was released on bail the same day, until 11 November, and was understood not to have been charged. The police said their investigation spanned the period from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

In January 2023 David Price, 76, who had taught at the school in the 1980s, was charged with three counts of indecent assault in the 1980s and was due in court in the following month. He was arrested after an 11-page account detailing alleged abuse was submitted to Cape Town police by a former pupil of Western Province preparatory school in the city. The complainant came forward after claims were made against Price and other former teachers by Alex Renton.

Notable former pupils

• David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, furniture maker
• Thomas Cholmondeley (1968–2016), Kenyan farmer
• Nicholas Coleridge, publisherAndrew Mitchell, Beyond a Fringe: Tales from a reformed Establishment lackey (London: Biteback Publishing, 2021), p. 5
• Charlie Cox, actor
• James Innes, author
• Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• Jo Johnson, politician
• Rachel Johnson, writer and journalist
• Damian Lewis, actor
• Nick Macpherson, civil servant
• Andrew Mitchell, politician
• Alex Renton, journalist and author
• Joseph Simpson (1909–1968), Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
• Fischer Watson (1884–1960), Royal Navy officer

References

References

1. (2006). "The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe". JHU Press.
2. (1965). "Sussex". Penguin Books.
3. Coke, Hope. (24 August 2021). "End of an era: Boris Johnson's prep school sold to developer for £5 million". [[The Tatler]].
4. [http://www.ashdownhouse.co.uk/history.html Ashdown House - History] {{webarchive. link. (October 7, 2011 "Ashdown House School". Retrieved 3 October 2011.)
5. Kennedy, Dominic. (24 December 2013). "Prep school faces claims of physical and sexual abuse". The Times.
6. Anthony, Andrew. (10 April 2017). "Book review: Stiff Upper Lip: Secrets, Crimes and the Schooling of a Ruling Class". The Guardian.
7. Renton, Alex. (2022). "In Dark Corners, episode 1: Ashdown House". BBC Radio 4.
8. (17 October 2021). "Beyond a Fringe review - the rise and fall of Andrew Mitchell".
9. Meikle, James. (11 July 2014). "Boris Johnson's former school head held on suspicion of historical sex abuse". [[The Guardian]].
10. Weaver, Matthew. (9 Jan 2023). "Retired teacher arrested in South Africa after BBC show on school abuse claims". [[The Guardian]].
11. (11 July 2014). "Former head of Boris Johnson's prep school arrested over sex abuse". The Independent.