St Mary's School 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 ...
day and boarding girls' school located in
Wantage
Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...
,
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
,
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 2007 it merged with
Heathfield School to become Heathfield St Mary's School (later reverted to Heathfield) and the Wantage site was closed.
It was affiliated with the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
and had close ties with its founding order, the
Community of St Mary the Virgin
The Community of St Mary the Virgin (CSMV) is an Anglican religious order based at Wantage in Oxfordshire, England. It was founded in 1848 by the vicar of Wantage, the Reverend William John Butler and is one of the oldest surviving religious commun ...
. It was predominantly a
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 ...
.
History
The Reverend William John Butler became Vicar of Wantage on 1 January 1847. His main aims were, first, to revive the religious life in England and second, to improve education. He hoped to achieve these aims by setting up an order of teaching sisters, but he faced many disappointments and spent 25 years trying to improve various day schools in the parish before St Mary's School was founded in 1873.
Together with its sister school, the
School of St Helen and St Katharine
St Helen & St Katharine is an independent girls' day school, located in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
History
St Helen's School, Abingdon was founded in 1903 by the Community of St Mary the Virgin (CSMV) to provide a Christian education for girls. ...
in
Abingdon, St Mary's was run by the sisters of the
Community of St Mary the Virgin
The Community of St Mary the Virgin (CSMV) is an Anglican religious order based at Wantage in Oxfordshire, England. It was founded in 1848 by the vicar of Wantage, the Reverend William John Butler and is one of the oldest surviving religious commun ...
and was based in the Queen Anne house on Newbury Street. Sister Ellen was the first Sister-in-Charge and Sister Juliana succeeded her in 1887. Sister Juliana had studied at Cambridge and set a high standard for the girls, entering them for the Oxford and Cambridge local examinations.
Sister Annie Louisa joined the school in 1898 and started a guide movement called Scout Patrols in 1899 before
Boy Scouts
Boy Scouts may refer to:
* Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement.
* Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement.
* An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are ...
had even begun. She succeeded Sister Juliana as Headmistress in 1903. Sister Annie Louisa was responsible for the chief structural improvements at St Mary's including a science wing and the conversion of an old barn into a gymnasium. By the time Sister Annie Louisa left in 1919, St Mary's was recognised as a “public school with an unusually high standard of scholarship”.
In 2005 the buildings were purchased for around £15m by the property developer Anton Bilton and his company, Raven Mount. The transaction was said to be necessary to increase the size of the school and modernise facilities. However, in 2006 it was announced that the school would be merging with the Heathfield School in
Ascot, to form a new school,
Heathfield St Mary's and the Wantage site was closed at the end of the summer term 2007.
Notable alumnae
*
Serena Armstrong-Jones, Countess of Snowdon
Serena Alleyne Armstrong-Jones, Countess of Snowdon (''née'' Stanhope; born 1 March 1970) is an Anglo-Irish aristocrat. She is the estranged wife of David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, who is the son of Princess Margaret and thus a cou ...
*
Harriet Bridgeman, Viscountess Bridgeman, founder of
Bridgeman Art Library
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*
Diana Churchill
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Diana Churchill was born at 33 Eccleston ...
, actress
*
Susannah Constantine
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, fashion advisor and author
*
Margaret Cooper (1918-2016), cryptographer
*
Flora Fraser, 21st Lady Saltoun
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Hon. Victoria Glendinning, novelist and broadcaster
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Lucinda Green
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, three-day eventer
*
Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster
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*
Hon. Daphne Guinness
*
Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn
Alexandra Anastasia Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, (''née'' Phillips; 27 February 1946 – 10 December 2018) was a British peeress and philanthropist. She was the wife of James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn, and a descendant of Russian poet ...
* Dame
Ruth Railton
Dame Ruth Railton (14 December 1915 – 23 February 2001) was a British music director and conductor.
After St. Mary's School, Wantage, and the Royal Academy of Music, she became director of music or choral work for several schools includi ...
, music director and conductor
*
Phyllis Hartnoll
Phyllis Hartnoll (22 September 1906, in Egypt – 8 January 1997, in Lyme Regis) was a British poet, author and editor.
Hartnoll was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and read English at St Hugh's College, Oxford,Jack Readin"Obituary: Phy ...
, poet
*
Kara-Louise Horne
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, ''Big Brother'' 8 contestant
*
Davina Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth
Davina Marcia Herbert Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth (10 July 1938 – 24 February 2008) was a crossbench member of the House of Lords, continuing to sit after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999 as an elected peer.
Biography
...
*
Judith Keppel
Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel (born 18 August 1942) is a British quiz show contestant who was the first person to win one million pounds on the British television game show ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''. She has appeared on the former BBC Two ...
, quiz panellist, first million-pound winner of
Who wants to be a millionaire?
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*
Candida Lycett Green
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, writer
*
Tessa Montgomery, Viscountess Montgomery of Alamein
*
Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne
Emma Harriet Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (born 16 October 1941) is a British politician, who has been a life peer since 1997. She was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Torridge and West Devon in 1987, befor ...
, politician
About Emma
Emma Nicholson
UK.
* Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill
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, interior designer
* Lady Helen Taylor
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Early l ...
* Susan Travers
Susan Mary Gillian Travers (23 September 1909 – 18 December 2003) was a British nurse and ambulance driver who served in the French Red Cross during the Second World War. She later became the only woman to be enlisted in the French Foreign Le ...
* Dame Jane Whiteley
Ian Reginald Edward Gow (; 11 February 1937 – 30 July 1990) was a British politician and solicitor. As a member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Eastbourne from 1974 until his assassination by the Pr ...
* Judith Wilcox, Baroness Wilcox
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References
External links
School Website
(via web.archive.org)
*
The Merge Forum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's School, Wantage
Educational institutions established in 1873
Educational institutions disestablished in 2007
Girls' schools in Oxfordshire
Defunct schools in Oxfordshire
1873 establishments in England
2007 disestablishments in England
Defunct Church of England schools
Wantage
People educated at St Mary’s School, Wantage