Clayesmore School


Clayesmore School is an independent school for boys and girls, aged 2 - 18 years, in the village of Iwerne Minster, Dorset, England. It is both a day and boarding school and is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school focuses on developing confidence, ambition and compassion in each of its pupils. It offers GCSEs, A - Levels and BTecs in higher years and sends its students to an array of leading Universities including Oxford and Cambridge.
The school was founded by Alexander Devine in 1896 in Enfield, Middlesex. After moving to Pangbourne, Berkshire and then to Winchester, Hampshire it finally moved to Iwerne Minster for the summer term of 1933. In 1974, it was joined on the Iwerne site by Clayesmore Preparatory School, originally Charlton Marshall School, which had been founded in 1929 by R.A.L. Everett. In the following year the school became co-educational.
As of 2019 there are 430 pupils in the senior school and 200 in the prep school. The current head is Joanne Thomson, who is supported by the Prep Head Jonathon Anderson. The school is situated on a campus in rural Dorset and the facilities include an astro-turf pitch, theatre, sports centre and extensive range of subject facilities including an art department, science block, business school and design and technology department.

History

For centuries the land on which Clayesmore now stands was held by Shaftesbury Abbey. After the dissolution it passed to the Bower family. Their family home was built in 1796 roughly on the site of the existing main building. In 1876 the last member of the Bower family, Captain T B Bower, sold the village and estate to George Glyn, 2nd Baron Wolverton. The Baron demolished the existing house, laid out the Iwerne estate afresh and commissioned Alfred Waterhouse to design the present building which was completed in 1878.
In 1904 the 4th Baron Wolverton put the whole estate up for sale. This was bought in 1908 by James Ismay whose father, Thomas Henry Ismay, had founded the White Star Line shipping company. On Ismay's death in January 1930 the estate was put up for sale in a number of separate lots. Clayesmore bought the main manor house and the in which it stands and the school moved in during 1933.

Heads

The senior school is divided into five boarding houses; three for boys and two for girls. The three boys' houses are:
The two girls' houses are:
Former pupils include: