The Downs School (Herefordshire)
Encyclopedia
The Downs, Malvern College Prep. is an independent coeducational school in the United Kingdom, founded in 1900. It is located in Colwall
in the County of Herefordshire, on the western slopes of the Malvern Hills
.
. One distinctive feature of the school is its miniature-gauge railway, the Downs Light Railway
, which begun in 1925. Complete with tunnels and station, it is the world's oldest private miniature railway.
when he and his wife Ethel Jones founded the Downs School as a preparatory school for boys. It opened with four pupils, and slowly expanded, with 40 pupils in 1918.
In 1920 Jones died and was succeeded by his second master, Geoffrey Hoyland, who had married into the Cadbury family
and used the family's wealth to expand and improve the school during his tenure as headmaster. Hoyland built new buildings, introduced student self-government and an innovative curriculum with an emphasis on science and the arts. Under his supervision, the pupils built and maintained a miniature railway, the only one in any English school at the time, which still survives to this day. Among the notable masters he hired were Maurice Feild
, who taught painting to a number of notable English artists, including Lawrence Gowing, W. H. Auden
and others.
Frazer Hoyland succeeded his brother Geoffrey as headmaster in 1940. He increased the school's emphasis on music and drama.
Shortly after the war the poet James Kirkup
taught at the school for four terms, and wrote his first collection there. Julius Harrison
composed a cantata and sonata for the school's Jubilee in 1950.
William Vaughan Berkley became headmaster in 1952, and remained until 1969. One of his most notable appointments, in 1957, was the actor Anthony Corfield as English master, who sustained an active program in drama for more than thirty years.
James Brown, who had been assistant head to Berkley, became headmaster in 1969; he wrote the history of the school, The First Five (meaning first five headmasters), published in 1988.
James Brown was succeeded as headmaster by Christopher Syers-Gibson, D H M Dalrymple, Ian Murphy, Andrew Auster, Mrs. J. Griggs, and, in 1999, Christopher Black.
In the late twentieth century the school became coeducational and added a nursery, kindergarten, and pre-prep school to the original preparatory school.
Alastair Ramsay was then headmaster and in 2008, the school merged with Malvern College
prep school, on The Downs' existing site.http://www.thedowns.org.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=66
In September 2009 Alastair S Cook became headmaster.
spent three years teaching English at the Downs School (1932-1935; he returned for the summer term in 1937 when the English master was away) He was loved as one of the more extravagant and eccentric teachers, who supplemented his teaching of English by teaching pupils how to make spitballs stick to the ceiling.
He helped to found the school magazine The Badger in 1933, and his contributions to it included poems about school personalities; he also contributed to it occasionally after he left the school. In 1935 he wrote, composed, and organized a musical "revue" in which the entire school took part; he reused some of the lyrics in his play The Dog Beneath the Skin. In 1937 he wrote a preface to the catalogue of an exhibition in a London gallery of paintings by present and former members of the school. Auden lived at the school in a cottage that he named "Lawrence Villa" (one of his allusions to D. H. Lawrence
); during the summer term he took his bed out to the lawn; thus the opening line of his poem "Out on the lawn I lie in bed".
Benjamin Britten
, Hedli Anderson
and William Coldstream
visited Auden at the school several times to work on Auden, Britten and Coldstream's collaboration for the G.P.O. Film Unit and to perform music and teach art to the pupils.
Among the poems that Auden wrote at the Downs were "Hearing of harvests"; his evocation of his "Vision of Agape" in June 1933, "Out on the lawn I lie in bed" (later dedicated to Geoffrey Hoyland); "Our hunting fathers"; "Look, stranger"; and, during his return in 1937, the despairing "Schoolchildren". He was particularly taken with one of his pupils, Michael Yates
, with whom he fell in love for some years and later maintained a life-long friendship.
The epigraph to Auden's posthumously-published play The Chase (written in 1935) was a poem by a Downs pupil, John Bowes, that had been mocked by the other pupils in one of Auden's classes; Auden rebuked them by saying that the poem was not only satisfactory but that he would use it in his next book. Bowes (later second master at Bryanston School
) and Auden corresponded in later years, and Auden stayed with Bowes and his wife in Cheltenham in 1972.
Colwall
Colwall is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England on the border with Worcestershire, nestling into the side of the Malvern Hills. Areas of the village are known as Colwall Stone, Upper Colwall and Colwall Green along over a mile of the B4218 road...
in the County of Herefordshire, on the western slopes of the Malvern Hills
Malvern Hills
The Malvern Hills are a range of hills in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern...
.
Overview
The Downs School comprises a nursery, kindergarten, pre-prep, and preparatory school; the preparatory school takes both day students and boarders. It is the preparatory school for Malvern CollegeMalvern College
Malvern College is a coeducational independent school located on a 250 acre campus near the town centre of Malvern, Worcestershire in England. Founded on 25 January 1865, until 1992, the College was a secondary school for boys aged 13 to 18...
. One distinctive feature of the school is its miniature-gauge railway, the Downs Light Railway
Downs Light Railway
The Downs Light Railway is the world's oldest private miniature railway, with a track gauge of 9½ inches. The Railway is located within the private grounds of the The Downs School . The railway was built and opened in 1925 by Geoffrey Hoyland as a 7¼ inch gauge railway, for the...
, which begun in 1925. Complete with tunnels and station, it is the world's oldest private miniature railway.
History of The Downs
The Downs School was founded in 1900 by Herbert Jones, who had been educated in Cambridge and was headmaster at the Leighton Park SchoolLeighton Park School
Leighton Park School is a co-educational Quaker independent school for both day and boarding pupils. It is situated in the large town of Reading in Berkshire, in South East England...
when he and his wife Ethel Jones founded the Downs School as a preparatory school for boys. It opened with four pupils, and slowly expanded, with 40 pupils in 1918.
In 1920 Jones died and was succeeded by his second master, Geoffrey Hoyland, who had married into the Cadbury family
Cadbury family
The Cadbury family is a prominent British family of industrialists descending from Richard Tapper Cadbury.* Richard Tapper Cadbury , who financed John** John Cadbury , family patriarch and founder of the chocolate company...
and used the family's wealth to expand and improve the school during his tenure as headmaster. Hoyland built new buildings, introduced student self-government and an innovative curriculum with an emphasis on science and the arts. Under his supervision, the pupils built and maintained a miniature railway, the only one in any English school at the time, which still survives to this day. Among the notable masters he hired were Maurice Feild
Maurice Feild
E. Maurice Feild was an English painter and teacher, a close associate of the Euston Road School, and an influential teacher at the Downs School, Colwall, and the Slade School of Art....
, who taught painting to a number of notable English artists, including Lawrence Gowing, W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
and others.
Frazer Hoyland succeeded his brother Geoffrey as headmaster in 1940. He increased the school's emphasis on music and drama.
Shortly after the war the poet James Kirkup
James Kirkup
James Falconer Kirkup, FRSL was a prolific English poet, translator and travel writer. He was brought up in South Shields, and educated at South Shields Secondary School and Durham University. He wrote over 30 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays...
taught at the school for four terms, and wrote his first collection there. Julius Harrison
Julius Harrison
Julius Allan Greenway Harrison was an English composer who was best known as a conductor of operatic works.-Life and career:...
composed a cantata and sonata for the school's Jubilee in 1950.
William Vaughan Berkley became headmaster in 1952, and remained until 1969. One of his most notable appointments, in 1957, was the actor Anthony Corfield as English master, who sustained an active program in drama for more than thirty years.
James Brown, who had been assistant head to Berkley, became headmaster in 1969; he wrote the history of the school, The First Five (meaning first five headmasters), published in 1988.
James Brown was succeeded as headmaster by Christopher Syers-Gibson, D H M Dalrymple, Ian Murphy, Andrew Auster, Mrs. J. Griggs, and, in 1999, Christopher Black.
In the late twentieth century the school became coeducational and added a nursery, kindergarten, and pre-prep school to the original preparatory school.
Alastair Ramsay was then headmaster and in 2008, the school merged with Malvern College
Malvern College
Malvern College is a coeducational independent school located on a 250 acre campus near the town centre of Malvern, Worcestershire in England. Founded on 25 January 1865, until 1992, the College was a secondary school for boys aged 13 to 18...
prep school, on The Downs' existing site.http://www.thedowns.org.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=66
In September 2009 Alastair S Cook became headmaster.
W. H. Auden at the Downs
The poet W. H. AudenW. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
spent three years teaching English at the Downs School (1932-1935; he returned for the summer term in 1937 when the English master was away) He was loved as one of the more extravagant and eccentric teachers, who supplemented his teaching of English by teaching pupils how to make spitballs stick to the ceiling.
He helped to found the school magazine The Badger in 1933, and his contributions to it included poems about school personalities; he also contributed to it occasionally after he left the school. In 1935 he wrote, composed, and organized a musical "revue" in which the entire school took part; he reused some of the lyrics in his play The Dog Beneath the Skin. In 1937 he wrote a preface to the catalogue of an exhibition in a London gallery of paintings by present and former members of the school. Auden lived at the school in a cottage that he named "Lawrence Villa" (one of his allusions to D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
); during the summer term he took his bed out to the lawn; thus the opening line of his poem "Out on the lawn I lie in bed".
Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, Hedli Anderson
Hedli Anderson
Antoinette Millicent Hedley Anderson was an English singer and actor.Known as Hedli Anderson, she studied singing in England and Germany before returning to London in 1934. Anderson joined the Group Theatre, and performed in cabaret and in the initial productions of plays by W. H. Auden,...
and William Coldstream
William Coldstream
Sir William Menzies Coldstream was a British realist painter and a long standing art teacher.-Biography:...
visited Auden at the school several times to work on Auden, Britten and Coldstream's collaboration for the G.P.O. Film Unit and to perform music and teach art to the pupils.
Among the poems that Auden wrote at the Downs were "Hearing of harvests"; his evocation of his "Vision of Agape" in June 1933, "Out on the lawn I lie in bed" (later dedicated to Geoffrey Hoyland); "Our hunting fathers"; "Look, stranger"; and, during his return in 1937, the despairing "Schoolchildren". He was particularly taken with one of his pupils, Michael Yates
Michael Yates (television designer)
Michael Yates was a British theatre, opera, and television designer.-Early life:One of five sons of James Yates, an English lawyer; the family lived in Brooklands, Sale, Lancashire...
, with whom he fell in love for some years and later maintained a life-long friendship.
The epigraph to Auden's posthumously-published play The Chase (written in 1935) was a poem by a Downs pupil, John Bowes, that had been mocked by the other pupils in one of Auden's classes; Auden rebuked them by saying that the poem was not only satisfactory but that he would use it in his next book. Bowes (later second master at Bryanston School
Bryanston School
Bryanston School is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Blandford, north Dorset, England, near the village of Bryanston. It was founded in 1928...
) and Auden corresponded in later years, and Auden stayed with Bowes and his wife in Cheltenham in 1972.
Former pupils
- Hugo Brant, Actor
- Percy Brown, politician and businessman
- Lawrence GowingLawrence GowingSir Lawrence Gowing was a British artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognized as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventually, curator and museum trustee...
, painter - Alan Hodgkin, neuroscientistNeuroscientistA neuroscientist is an individual who studies the scientific field of neuroscience or any of its related sub-fields...
and Nobel laureate - Richard MasonRichard Mason (1919-1997)Richard Mason was a British novelist. Born near Manchester, he was educated in Dorset, then worked first on a film magazine and later for the British Council...
, novelist - Drummond Hoyle MatthewsDrummond MatthewsDrummond Hoyle Matthews FRS was a British marine geologist and geophysicist and a key contributor to the theory of plate tectonics...
, (1931–1997), geologist and marine geophysicist - Frederick SangerFrederick SangerFrederick Sanger, OM, CH, CBE, FRS is an English biochemist and a two-time Nobel laureate in chemistry, the only person to have been so. In 1958 he was awarded a Nobel prize in chemistry "for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin"...
(born 1918), biochemistBiochemistryBiochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
and the fourth person to become a double Nobel LaureateNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895... - A. J. P. TaylorA. J. P. TaylorAlan John Percivale Taylor, FBA was a British historian of the 20th century and renowned academic who became well known to millions through his popular television lectures.-Early life:...
, notable historian - Michael YatesMichael Yates (television designer)Michael Yates was a British theatre, opera, and television designer.-Early life:One of five sons of James Yates, an English lawyer; the family lived in Brooklands, Sale, Lancashire...
, television designer