West Heath Girls' School was an English girls' independent school established in 1865, initially in London and from 1932 near

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the traditio ...

, Kent. It closed in 1997.

History

The Reverend Philip Bennet Power and his wife, Emma, undertook the education of their own daughters at their

Abbey Wood Abbey Wood is an area in south east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Charing Cross. Toponymy The area takes its name from Lesnes Abbey Woo ...

home, West Heath House. The quality of the girls' education attracted other local families to ask the Powers to teach their children and West Heath School thus opened in 1865. In 1879 the expanding school moved to 1 Ham Common, in what was then the agricultural community of

Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term "ham ...

, Surrey. The house, set in over of grounds, was the former residence of the Duc de Chartres. In 1890 Misses Sarah, Maria and Anna Buckland and Miss Jane Percival who owned a similar school in

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

joined forces with the ageing Mrs Power at Ham Common and they ran the school until its purchase in 1900 by Misses Emma Lawrence and Margaret Skeat. Miss Elliott joined the staff in 1928 and was appointed Principal the following year. The development of nearby shops and housing prompted a second move, Ham having become "too suburbanised for a high class girls' school". In 1932 the school moved to its final site, the 18th-century Ashgrove House, near

, the former home of the Elliot family. The larger premises allowed the school to grow from its previous capacity at Ham of about seventy boarders, to over one hundred by the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. Diana, Princess of Wales, then Diana Spencer, attended the school from 1974 to 1977 and won an award as "the girl giving maximum help to the school and her schoolfellows". In the 1990s the school had financial difficulties due to falling numbers of pupils, and it was placed into receivership in 1997.

Later use of the site

The

Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was an independent grant-giving foundation established in September 1997 after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, to continue her humanitarian work in the United Kingdom and overseas. It was a regi ...

considered buying the school, but decided against it, and Mohamed Al Fayed stepped in to buy West Heath for £2,300,000 on 20 May 1998 as new premises for the Beth Marie Centre. He later pledged to contribute a further £550,000 towards equipping the school. In a statement, he said: :I am surprised that the Princess Diana Memorial Fund, with all its millions in the bank, did not show a greater interest in this project. I believe it to be a far more fitting tribute to her work than putting her name on tasteless souvenirs. The New School at West Heath, a special school, opened in the same premises on 14 September 1998, and was renamed as West Heath School in September 2015.

Notable former pupils

* Diana, Princess of Wales *

Lady Sarah McCorquodale Lady Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia McCorquodale (''née'' Spencer; born 19 March 1955) is one of the two older sisters of Diana, Princess of Wales, the other being Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes. Early life Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia Spencer was born ...

Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes Cynthia Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes (''née'' Spencer; born 11 February 1957), is one of the two older sisters of Diana, Princess of Wales, the other being Lady Sarah McCorquodale. Early life and education Lady Fellowes is the second daug ...

* Issy van Randwyck *

Annabel Croft Annabel Nicola Croft (born 12 July 1966) is a former professional British female tennis player and current radio and television presenter. As a tennis player she won the WTA Tour event Virginia Slims of San Diego and represented Great Britain i ...

Penelope Farmer Penelope Jane Farmer (born 1939) is an English fiction writer well known for children's fantasy novels. Her best-known novel is ''Charlotte Sometimes (novel), Charlotte Sometimes'' (1969), a boarding-school story that features a multiple time sli ...

Gillian Joynson-Hicks Gillian Evelyn Joynson-Hicks, Viscountess Brentford, (''née'' Schluter; born 22 November 1942) is a British evangelical Anglican and activist. She served as the Third Church Estates Commissioner, one of the most senior lay people in the Church ...

Tilda Swinton Katherine Matilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition t ...

* Rose Ridley

References

External links

Information about the school previously on Al-Fayed's website
(last available archived version, 17 May 2006)
West Heath Tennis Centre
which takes place on the schools facilities when not in use for additional funding.
An account of Princess Diana's time at the school

An account, from ''Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words''
{{authority control Boarding schools in Kent Educational institutions established in 1865 Schools in Sevenoaks Defunct schools in Kent 1865 establishments in England Girls' schools in England