Ashdown House, East Sussex


Ashdown House was a co-educational prep school in Forest Row, East Sussex. There were, at the time of its closure around 100 pupils from the ages seven to thirteen; with a roughly even split of boys and girls.
Due to declining numbers and the impact of Covid19, the school announced its closure on June 1st 2020.

History

Ashdown House was originally an 18th-century country house, completed in 1794 by Sussex-born Benjamin Latrobe who was later one of the architects of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and also designed the nearby Hammerwood Park and the front portico of the White House in Washington. Ashdown is a Grade II* listed building.
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.
Historical allegations in the 1970s of physical and sexual abuse by multiple former pupils, 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.
The head teacher, who took over in September 2019, is Hilary Phillips, previously head teacher of Monmouth School Girls' Prep, an independent day and boarding preparatory school in Wales.

Notable former pupils

Notable Old Ashdownians include: