Clayesmore School

Updated on Nov 21, 2024

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Established 1896 Head Joanne Thomson Phone +44 1747 811707 Founded 1896		Religion Church of England Founder Alexander Devine Number of students 710

Type Other Independent School Location Iwerne MinsterBlandford ForumDorsetDT11 8LL England Address Iwerne Minster, Blandford DT11 8LL, United Kingdom Motto Dieu premier donc mes frères Similar Bryanston School, Port Regis School, Hanford School, Milton Abbey School, The Shaftesb School Profiles Facebook Twitter

Clayesmore school household department farewell to the cookes

Clayesmore School is an independent school for boys and girls of the English public school tradition in the village of Iwerne Minster, Dorset, England. It is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC).

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 2016 there are 480 pupils in the senior school (ages 13–18) and 240 in the prep school (ages 3–13). The current head is Joanne Thomson. The school is situated on 62-acre (250,000 m²) campus in rural Dorset and the facilities include an astro-turf pitch, theatre, sports centre and extensive range of specialist subject facilities including an art department science block and a new business school.

The school's colours are dark blue, red, and yellow, and also introduced in 2009 the colours of light blue and green.

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 (now Wolverton House) which was completed in 1878.

In 1904 the 4th Baron Wolverton put the whole 2,612-acre (10.57 km²) 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 60 acres (240,000 m²) in which it stands and the school moved in during 1933.