Shardlow Hall was a school in

Shardlow Shardlow is a village in Derbyshire, England about southeast of Derby and southwest of Nottingham. Part of the civil parish of Shardlow and Great Wilne, and the district of South Derbyshire, it is also very close to the border with Leicestersh ...

, a village seven miles south of

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

in the

English Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. It was founded by B.O.Corbett, who had played football for England, as a preparatory school for boys. One of its notable students was John Harris, who wrote under the name

John Wyndham John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (; 10 July 1903 – 11 March 1969) was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names ...

.John Wyndham biography
goliath.ecnext.com, accessed 6 September 2008

Origins

The school was founded in

Shardlow Hall Shardlow Hall was a school in Shardlow, a village seven miles south of Derby in the English Midlands. It was founded by Bertie Corbett, B.O.Corbett, who had played football for England, as a preparatory school for boys. One of its notable student ...

in a structure built in 1684 as a home for the Fosbrooke family. B.O.Corbett, whose brother C.J. "John" Corbett was already the headmaster of another boys' school on Kedleston road in

, obtained the hall. The headmaster had earned a Soccer Blue for

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and played for the Corinthians and once for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1906 against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

.EnglandFC.com
, accessed 7 September 2008 Wwwinter29

The school was founded in 1911; the following year the head married Ella Stagg in Essex. Within three years Britain was at war with

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and both the headmaster and the students were fundraising for wounded soldiers. In 1915 a new law known as the ''Finance (No. 2) Act'' was enacted. This law was intended to prevent companies from making large profits because of the war; however, it affected all companies, not just those who were involved in arms and supplies to the armed forces.The Rise of the English Prep School
Donald Leinster-Mackay, Taylor & Francis, 1984, p.235, , accessed 6 September 2008 In this case "companies" included schools. The excess profits tax was calculated by comparing pre-war and wartime profits; however, companies that had seen growth because they had just started could see their profits cut by fifty per cent. The school's charges were set at twenty-five guineas per year, but additional charges were made for linen, the doctor and music lessons. O.E.P. Wyatt, who went on be a headmaster at Maidwell Hall from 1929 to 1963, was previously at Shardlow Hall. The head, Mr. Corbett, went on to retire on hundreds of acres of land that he bought, some of which he gave to the state.

Notable former pupils

*Major Michael Argyle, (1915–99) Judge * Geoffrey Sharman Dawes CBE, FRS (1918–2006) Director of the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research *Very Rev.

Thomas Ashworth Goss Thomas Ashworth Goss was an Anglican priest. He was born on 27 July 1912 and educated at Shardlow Hall, Aldenham and the University of St Andrews. He was ordained in 1938 and began his ecclesiastical career with a curacy at Frodingham, after w ...

(1912–75) Canon of Winchester *John Harris also known as

in 1915 *

Arthur Frederick Crane Nicholls Brigadier Arthur Frederick Crane Nicholls, (6 February 1911 – 11 February 1944) was a British Army officer who was awarded the George Cross for gallantry and leadership on active service with the Special Operations Executive in Albania in ...

(1911–1944), soldier and heroRoderick Bailey, ‘Nicholls, Arthur Frederick Crane (1911–1944)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 6 Sept 2008
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shardlow Hall (School) Boys' schools in Derbyshire Defunct schools in Derbyshire Educational institutions established in 1911 History of Derbyshire 1911 establishments in England * Educational institutions disestablished in 1933 1933 disestablishments in England