Great Ayton Friends' School (1841–1997) in

Great Ayton Great Ayton is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. The River Leven (a tributary of the River Tees) flows through the village, which lies just north of the North York Moors. Etymology Great Ayton's ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England, was an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, co-educational, agricultural

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

, run by the

Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

(the Quakers). The school was situated on High Green on an estate of around . The River Leven (a tributary of the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has be ...

), ran through the school grounds and was bridged in several places.

History

Quakers in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, having concern for children of

disowned Disownment occurs when a parent renounces or no longer accepts a child as a family member, usually due to reprehensible actions leading to serious emotional consequences. Different from giving a child up for adoption, it is a social and interpers ...

Friends who were not eligible for Quaker education, were searching for a suitable site to establish an agricultural school on their behalf. Unable to find a site in the preferred area of

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

, Durham Friends sought the assistance of Thomas Richardson, a Quaker from

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

who had come to live in Great Ayton on his retirement in 1830. In 1841 the school was established "for the maintenance of 36 boys and the same number of girls belonging to or connected with the Society of Friends; others are admitted at a charge representing about the average cost of each child per annum. There was now accommodation for 80 boarders. The course of instruction embraces Latin, French, Euclid, Geometry, Algebra, and various scientific subjects: Agriculture, Chemistry, Physiology, Botany, etc. The girls are trained either for domestic work or a higher sphere of life".Bulmer's History, Topography, and Directory of North Yorkshire,1890. George Dixon was the first superintendent of the Quaker School, he also started a botanical class in the village for local residents, including lichenologist William A. Mudd, (1829-1879). An estate of nearly was purchased for the purposes of the school, and many additions were made to the premises. Disownment for 'marrying out' ended in 1854, and the school changed with the times, becoming the Friends' School. From 1935 to 1942 the school hosted nearly 40 refugees from the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime. The school gradually attracted greater numbers of pupils until there was no room large enough to contain all of the 300 pupils. In 1968 the

Meeting House A meeting house (meetinghouse, meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes public meetings take place. Terminology Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a * church, which is a body of people who believe in Chr ...

was enlarged to accommodate the complete student body. In 1991 the school adopted a more commercial approach. It dropped its named association with the Quakers and adopted the new name 'Ayton School'. It appointed a marketing manager to promote the school's facilities to the general public, a move that signalled hard times were around the corner. The closure of the school in 1997 came as a shock and bereavement to the Quakers, the villagers of Great Ayton and the staff and pupils at the school. Dwindling pupil numbers had given the trustees no other option but to close the school at the end of the term. In a letter to parents, chairman Robert Campbell explained that 37 of the school's 200 pupils had withdrawn from the school recently leaving the school massively short of funds. The school's 28 teachers and 22 other staff lost their jobs and the school's grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and its estate were put up for sale. During its 157-year history the school was attended by almost 7,500 pupils and employed 550 staff.

Present

The Friends school estate was sold to

Wimpey Homes George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructio ...

. Working with

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and The Georgian Society, the company established a development with attempted sympathy to the local style and to the surrounding architecture. Many of the school's original features have been retained and the local wildlife and landscapes have been carefully managed. Wimpey built 63 properties on the grounds. The styles vary from the farmhouse family homes, to cottages and traditional three-storey town houses. In the Richardson School Hall, 21 apartments were sold, ranging in price from £120,000 to £200,000. The Quakers in Great Ayton set aside part of the meeting house as an 'Old Scholars' room containing many items selected by Old Scholars to be retained as mementoes of the School. The War Memorial plaque from the School dining room is placed there while the

memorial bench A memorial bench, memorial seat or death bench is a piece of outdoor furniture which commemorates a dead person. Such benches are typically made of wood, but can also be made of metal, stone, or synthetic materials such as plastics. Typically mem ...

es remain in the meeting room.

References

External links

Ayton Old Scholars

Ayton School, photographs of Great Ayton
* {{authority control Grade II listed buildings in North Yorkshire Quaker schools in England Grade II listed educational buildings Educational institutions established in 1841 Educational institutions disestablished in 1997 Defunct schools in North Yorkshire 1841 establishments in England 1997 disestablishments in England

History

Present

References

Further reading

External links