The Downs Malvern is 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 ...
prep school in the United Kingdom, founded in 1900. It is located on a site in
Colwall
Colwall is a civil parish in Herefordshire, England, situated on the border with Worcestershire, nestling on the western side of the Malvern Hills at the heart of the AONB. Areas of the village are known as Colwall Stone, Upper Colwall which sha ...
in the
County of Herefordshire, on the western slopes of the
Malvern Hills
The Malvern Hills are in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit aff ...
.
[Independent Schools Inspectorate; ]
The Downs, Malvern College Prep
', 2015. (Retrieved 2 February 2017). The school takes children aged 2 to 13 and comprises a nursery, kindergarten, pre-prep, and preparatory school; the preparatory school takes both day students and boarders. The Headmaster since 2009 has been Alastair Cook, who is a member of the Boarding Schools Association and the
IAPS. Fees are currently up to £21,471 pa for full boarders and up to £16,221 pa for day pupils.
Since 2008 the Downs has been the preparatory school for
Malvern College.
A distinctive feature of the school is its miniature-gauge railway, the
Downs Light Railway
The Downs Light Railway is the world's oldest private miniature railway,Tom Banner;Downs Light Railway response to Downs School merger, Malvern Gazette, 22 April 2022.(Retrieved 3 Dec 2022) with a track gauge of . The railway is located within ...
, which was begun in 1925. Complete with a tunnel and a station, it is the world's oldest private miniature railway.
History
The Downs School at
Colwall
Colwall is a civil parish in Herefordshire, England, situated on the border with Worcestershire, nestling on the western side of the Malvern Hills at the heart of the AONB. Areas of the village are known as Colwall Stone, Upper Colwall which sha ...
was founded in 1900 by Herbert Jones, who had been educated in Cambridge and was headmaster at
Leighton Park School
Leighton Park School is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, having been founded as a Quaker School in 1890. The school's ...
when he and his wife Ethel Jones founded the Downs Malvern as a preparatory school for boys. It opened with four pupils, and slowly expanded, with 40 pupils in 1918.
The Jones were
Quakers
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 abil ...
, and the Downs was unusual in being a
Quaker school, a status which would eventually fade away. The Quaker ambience meant that several of the staff were
conscientious objectors
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objecti ...
in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. It was also unusual in pioneering extra-curricular activities, such as music and hobbies, for its pupils. This innovation would eventually spread across the mainstream preparatory schools.
[Brown (1988)]
In 1920 the Joneses left, and were succeeded by the second master, Geoffrey Hoyland, one of the conscientious objectors. He had married into the
Cadbury family
The Cadbury family is a wealthy British family of Quaker industrialists descending from Richard Tapper Cadbury.
* Richard Tapper Cadbury (1768–1860) draper and abolitionist, who financed his sons' start-up business
** John Cadbury (1801–1889 ...
and used the family's wealth to expand and improve the school during his tenure as headmaster. Hoyland built new buildings, introduced student self-government and an innovative curriculum with an emphasis on science and the arts. Under his supervision, the pupils built and maintained a miniature railway, the only one in any English school at the time, which still survives. Among the notable masters he hired were the painter
Maurice Feild and the poet
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
.
Frazer Hoyland succeeded his brother Geoffrey as headmaster in 1940. He increased the school's emphasis on music and drama. Shortly after the war the poet
James Kirkup
James Harold Kirkup, FRSL (23 April 1918 – 10 May 2009) was an English poet, translator and travel writer. He wrote over 45 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays. He wrote under many pen-names including James Falconer, Aditya Jha ...
taught at the school for four terms, and wrote his first collection there.
Julius Harrison
Julius Allan Greenway Harrison (26 March 1885 – 5 April 1963) was an English composer and conductor who was particularly known for his interpretation of operatic works. Born in Lower Mitton, Stourport in Worcestershire, by the age of 16 ...
composed a cantata and sonata for the school's Jubilee in 1950.
William Vaughan Berkley became headmaster in 1952, and remained until 1969. In 1957, he appointed as English master the actor Anthony Corfield, who sustained an active programme in drama for more than thirty years. James Brown, who had been assistant head to Berkley, became headmaster in 1969. He wrote the history of the school, ''The First Five'' (meaning the first five headmasters), published in 1988. Brown was succeeded as headmaster by Christopher Syers-Gibson, D. H. M. Dalrymple, Ian Murphy, Andrew Auster, J. Griggs, and, in 1999, Christopher Black.
By the end of the twentieth century the school was coeducational and included a nursery, kindergarten and pre-prep as well as the original preparatory school.
Alastair Ramsay became the next headmaster and, in 2008, the school merged with
Malvern College prep school, on The Downs' existing site. The name was changed to ''The Downs Malvern'' to reflect its new stewardship.
/sup> In September 2009 Alastair Cook became headmaster.
Andy Nuttall became Headmaster of The Downs Malvern in May 2020.
The Downian Society draws its membership from former pupils, employees and associates of the school.
W. H. Auden at the Downs
The poet W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
spent three years teaching English at The Downs during 1932–1935. He returned for the summer term in 1937 when the English master was away. He was loved as one of the more extravagant and eccentric teachers, who supplemented his teaching of English by teaching pupils how to make spitballs stick to the ceiling.
He helped to found the school magazine ''The Badger'' in 1933, and his contributions to it included poems about school personalities. He continued to contribute occasionally after he left the school. In 1935 he wrote, composed, and organised a musical revue, in which the entire school took part, and reused some of the lyrics in his play ''The Dog Beneath the Skin''. In 1937 he wrote a preface to the catalogue of an exhibition in a London gallery of paintings by present and former members of the school. Auden lived at the school in a cottage that he named "Lawrence Villa" (one of his allusions to D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
). During the summer term, he used to sleep out on the lawn; thus the opening line of his poem "Out on the lawn I lie in bed".
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
, Hedli Anderson
Antoinette Millicent Hedley Anderson (1907 – 1990) was an English singer and actor.
Known as Hedli Anderson, she studied singing in England and Germany before returning to London in 1934. Anderson joined the Group Theatre, and performed in ca ...
and William Coldstream
Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher.
Biography
Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of co ...
visited Auden at the school several times to work on their collaboration for the GPO Film Unit
The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office. The unit was established in 1933, taking on responsibilities of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit. Headed by John Grierson, it was set up to produce sponsored documentary films ...
, and to perform music and teach art to the pupils.
Among the poems that Auden wrote at the Downs were ''Hearing of harvests''; his evocation of his ''Vision of Agape'' in June 1933, ''Out on the lawn I lie in bed'' (later dedicated to Geoffrey Hoyland); ''Our hunting fathers''; ''Look, stranger''; and, during his return in 1937, the despairing ''Schoolchildren''. He was particularly taken with one of his pupils, Michael Yates, with whom he fell in love for some years and later maintained a lifelong friendship. Auden's time at The Downs was one of the happiest periods in his life.
The epigraph to Auden's posthumously published play ''The Chase'' (written in 1935) was a poem by a Downs pupil, John Bowes, which had been mocked by the other pupils in Auden's class. Auden rebuked them, saying that the poem was not only satisfactory but that he would use it in his next book. Bowes (later second master at Bryanston School
Bryanston School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset in South West England. It was founded in 1928. ...
) and Auden corresponded in later years, and Auden stayed with Bowes and his wife in Cheltenham in 1972.
Downs Light Railway
The Downs Light Railway is a distinctive feature of the school. This miniature-gauge railway was begun in 1925 and, complete with a tunnel under Brockhill Road and a station, is situated within the school grounds. It maintains working engines under both steam and petrol power and is used as an extra-curricular activity to teach pupils a range of skills.
Former pupils
* Derek Bangham
Derek Raymond Bangham FRCP (19 September 1924 – 2 January 2008) was a British doctor and research scientist.
Early life
He was born in Manchester, England on 19 September 1924 and attended The Downs School, near Malvern, where his tea ...
(1924–2008), research scientist
* James I. C. Boyd, railway historian
* Gurney Braithwaite
Sir Joseph Gurney Braithwaite, 1st Baronet (24 May 1895 – 25 June 1958) was an English Conservative Party politician.
Gurney Braithwaite came from a Quaker family, the youngest son of Joseph Bevan Braithwaite (stockbroker). He was educated ...
, Conservative politician
* Percy Browne
Percy Basil Browne (2 May 1923 – 5 March 2004) was an English businessman, farmer, amateur jockey and Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Torrington from 1959 to 1964.
He was educated at Eton before joining the ...
, politician and business man
* John Crabtree, lawyer and businessman; Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands
This is a list of people who have served as Lord-Lieutenant of West Midlands since the creation of that office on 1 April 1974.
*Charles Ian Finch-Knightley, 11th Earl of Aylesford 1 April 1974 – 1993
* Sir Robert Richard Taylor 16 December 1 ...
* Sir Lawrence Gowing
Sir Lawrence Burnett Gowing (21 April 1918 – 5 February 1991) was an English artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognised as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventuall ...
RA, painter
* Sir Alan Hodgkin
Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (5 February 1914 – 20 December 1998) was an English physiologist and biophysicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles.
Early life and education
Hodgkin was bo ...
, neuroscientist
A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial ...
and Nobel laureate
* Humphrey Kay
Humphrey Edward Melville Kay (10 October 1923 – 20 October 2009) was an English pathologist and haematologist who oversaw clinical trials for leukaemia treatments for the Medical Research Council in the 1960s and 1970s.
Early life
Kay was bor ...
(1923–2009), pathologist and haematologist
* Richard Mason, novelist
*Peter Parker
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August ...
, author and journalist
* Drummond Hoyle Matthews FRS, geologist and marine geophysicist
* Will Merrick
William Charles Merrick (born 9 April 1993) is an English screen and stage actor. His debut was in the third generation of the BAFTA winning, E4 television series '' Skins'' as the character Alo Creevey.
Early life and education
Merrick origi ...
, actor
* Lionel Penrose
Lionel Sharples Penrose, FRS (11 June 1898 – 12 May 1972) was an English psychiatrist, medical geneticist, paediatrician, mathematician and chess theorist, who carried out pioneering work on the genetics of intellectual disability. Penrose ...
, medical expert and mathematician
* Frederick Sanger , biochemist and the fourth person to become a double Nobel Laureate
* Charles Settrington, Lord March of Goodwood
* A. J. P. Taylor
Alan John Percivale Taylor (25 March 1906 – 7 September 1990) was a British historian who specialised in 19th- and 20th-century European diplomacy. Both a journalist and a broadcaster, he became well known to millions through his televis ...
,[C.J. Wrigley; ''A.J.P.Taylor: Radical Historian of Europe'', Taurus, 2006.] historian
* Donald Wright, schoolmaster
* Michael Yates, television designer
References
Citations
Bibliography
* Jim Brown, ''The First Five: The Story of a School'' (1988)
External links
School website
The Downs Light Railway Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Downs Malvern The Worcestershire
Educational institutions established in 1900
Preparatory schools in Herefordshire
1900 establishments in England