Established 1869 Ages 7–13 Founded 1869 | Closed 1990s Founder Reverend John Hawtrey | |
Type Independent preparatory school Location | ||
Hawtreys Preparatory School was an independent boys' preparatory school, first established in Slough, later moved to Westgate-on-Sea, then to Oswestry, and finally to a country house near Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire. In its early years it was known as St Michael's School.
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In 1994, the school merged with Cheam School, near Newbury, Berkshire.
History
The school was founded in 1869 by the Reverend John Hawtrey. He had been a boy at Eton, from the age of eight. In later life he became a master at Eton and was offered his own house of boys. He decided to remove all of the younger boys from the school. With the permission of Eton College, he took the lowest two forms out to a separate school in Slough and housed them in what is now St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School, Slough. This was known as St Michael's School, and was opened on 29 September 1869, (St Michael's day).
John Hawtrey's son, Edward, removed the school to Westgate-on-Sea early in 1883. When Edward Hawtrey died, the name of the school was changed to Hawtreys.
The school buildings were requisitioned during the Second World War and the school moved to Oswestry, to the home of Sir William Wynn-Williams. In 1946 it moved to Tottenham House, a large Palladian country house near the village of Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, in the heart of the Savernake Forest. Throughout the history of the school, a close connection was maintained with Eton College to which many boys moved at the age of thirteen.
In 1994, the school merged with Cheam School, near Newbury, Berkshire, which is formally called Cheam Hawtreys, but generally known simply as Cheam.