, motto_translation = Go in faith , established = 1896 , type =

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 * Independe ...

boarding

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compu ...

, religion =

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 Britai ...

, head_label = Headmistress , head = J. Duncan , chair_label = Chairman of the council , chair = Peter Warren , founder = Dame Frances Dove , city =

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Aylesbur ...

, county =

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

, country = England , postcode = HP11 1PE , urn = 110547 , dfeno = 825/6018 , staff = 117 Teaching
167 Support , capacity = Approx. 650 , enrolment = 650 , gender = Female , lower_age = 11 , upper_age = 18 , houses = 11 , colours = , website = Wycombe Abbey is an independent girls' boarding and day school in

, England. It is consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls schools in academic results. The school was founded in 1896 by Dame Frances Dove (1847–1942), who was previously headmistress of St Leonards School in Scotland. Its present capacity is approximately 650 girls, aged 11 to 18. The current headmistress is Jo Duncan. The school is on a 69 hectare campus in central High Wycombe. The land includes woods, gardens, a Cold War bunker ( RAF Daws Hill) and a lake, and rises up to 150 metres above sea level in the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshir ...

. The freehold is owned by the school; the main house and several buildings at Wycombe Abbey are Grade II* listed.

History

Early history

In the 13th century, the area, with the parish church, was part of the holding of the Abbess of

Godstow Godstow is about northwest of the centre of Oxford. It lies on the banks of the River Thames between the villages of Wolvercote to the east and Wytham to the west. The ruins of Godstow Abbey, also known as Godstow Nunnery, are here. A bridge ...

. 600 years later, the priory at Godstowe was also re-founded as a school by Dame Frances Dove, and today is a 'feeder' preparatory school for Wycombe Abbey. On the site of the present Wycombe Abbey was a large

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals with ...

known as 'Loakes House' which was the seat of the Archdale family, until 1700, when Thomas Archdale sold it to Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne. The earl, in turn, bequeathed the estate to his grandnephew,

William Petty Sir William Petty FRS (26 May 1623 – 16 December 1687) was an English economist, physician, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth in Ireland. He developed efficient methods to su ...

, (who inherited a different Earldom of Shelburne in 1761 and became

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

in 1782). The Shelburnes, though, had a far larger and grander residence at Bowood House in the

Savernake Forest Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately . Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Earl of ...

and spent little time at Loakes House. Consequently, Lord Shelburne sold his estates in the area. Loakes House was purchased from them at auction by

Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington (22 January 1752 – 18 September 1838), was a British banker and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1779 to 1797 when he was raised to the peerage. Early life Smith was the third son of Abel Sm ...

, in 1798. He employed the architect

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

to transform Loakes House into Wycombe Abbey as we see it today. The original house and other parts of the school are listed Grade II* on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

with the landscaped grounds of the school listed Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

World War II

The

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

requisitioned Wycombe Abbey School in March 1942 to serve as the headquarters of the United States

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces ...

after the entry of the United States into

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It was returned to Wycombe Abbey on 9 May 1946.

Houses

As at most

independent schools An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British En ...

, the pupils are placed in

houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...

. The houses at Wycombe Abbey are: Airlie, Barry, Butler, Campbell, Cloister, Pitt, Rubens, Shelburne and Wendover. Girls in UVI live in Clarence, while the junior-most girls, UIIIs, live in Junior House. Every house at Wycombe Abbey is linked to a colour and, as part of the school uniform, girls wear ties which correspond to their House colour i.e., sky blue – Barry, green – Cloister, brown – Airlie, pink – Rubens, yellow – Pitt, orange – Butler, purple – Campbell, dark blue – Shelburne, red – Wendover, lavender – Junior. Each girl has her own 'House Mother', a girl in the year above in the same house who looks after her, particularly when new to the school. Each house has a housemistress and matrons.

Notable alumnae (Wycombe Abbey Seniors)

* Rosie Alison, producer and writer * Eve Best, actress * Elsie Bowerman, suffragette, ''Titanic'' survivor and lawyer * Kate Brooke, screenwriter *

Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss Ann Elizabeth Oldfield Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss, GBE, PC (''née'' Havers; born 10 August 1933), is a retired English judge. She was the first female Lord Justice of Appeal and was the highest-ranking female judge in the United King ...

, British judge, Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household *

Sue Carr Dame Sue Lascelles Carr, (born 1 September 1964), styled The Rt Hon Lady Justice Carr, is an English judge, who has served as a Lady Justice of Appeal since 2020. Origins and education Carr is the daughter of Richard Carr and Edda Harvey (née ...

, Lady Justice of Appeal * Judith Chaplin, Member of Parliament (1992) * Lorraine Copeland, archaeologist *

Gabrielle Drake Gabrielle Drake (born 30 March 1944) is a British actress. She appeared in the 1970s in television series '' The Brothers'' and '' UFO''. In the early 1970s she appeared in several erotic roles on screen. She later took parts in soap operas '' ...

, actress * Penelope Fitzgerald, novelist and biographer * Jackie Forster, actress, TV personality, feminist and lesbian campaigner * Elizabeth Haysom, orchestrated the double murder of her parents * Molly Hide, English cricketer * Lady Patricia Ann Hopkins, architect * Elspeth Howe, Baroness Howe of Idlicote * India Knight, journalist *

Dorothy Lamb Lady (Dorothy) Brooke Nicholson, (1887–1967), better known by her maiden name Dorothy Lamb, was a British archaeologist and writer known for her catalogue of terracotta in the Acropolis Museum, Athens and her work in Mediterranean field arc ...

, archaeologist *

Beverley Lang Dame Beverley Ann Macnaughton Lang, KC (born 13 October 1955), styled The Hon. Ms Justice Lang, is a judge of the High Court of England and Wales. She was educated at Wycombe Abbey School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was called to the ...

, Justice of the High Court * Fiona MacCarthy, biographer and cultural historian *

Diana Magnay Diana Magnay is a British journalist who is currently Sky News' Moscow correspondent. She was educated at Wycombe Abbey, and holds a BA in Modern History from St Hugh's College, Oxford where she received the Arnold Modern History Prize in 1999, and ...

, journalist * Charlotte Moore, BBC's Director of Content *

Florence Nagle Florence Nagle (26 October 1894 – 30 October 1988) was a British trainer and breeder of horse racing, racehorses, a breeder of purebred, pedigree dogs, and an active feminist. Nagle purchased her first Irish Wolfhound in 1913, and went ...

, trainer and breeder of racehorses, breeder of pedigree dogs, feminist * Melanie Nakhla, soprano 2 in classical crossover group All Angels * Winifred Peck (née Knox), English author * Sally Phillips, actress * Joan Riviere, psychoanalyst * Merryn Somerset Webb, editor in chief of '' MoneyWeek'' * Sarah Springman, CBE FREng, engineer and sportswoman, rector of

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , a ...

Polly Stenham Polly Stenham (born 16 July 1986) is an English playwright known for her play ''That Face'', which she wrote when she was 19 years old. Background Stenham was born and raised in London. She attributes her love of theatre to her father as he to ...

, playwright * Rachael Stirling, actress * Lady "Red Jessie" Street, Australian suffragette, social reformer and founding United Nations envoy *

Florence Temko Florence Maria Temko (October 20, 1921 – November 12, 2009), a pioneer in spreading origami in the United States, was perhaps the most prolific author on this subject. With fifty-five books to her credit on paper arts and folk crafts, she was a ...

, origami pioneer and author * Mary Wakefield, journalist * Sonya Walger, actress * Lady Charlotte Wellesley, socialite and producer * Kathy Wilkes, philosopher * Lady Nicholas Windsor, wife of Lord Nicholas Windsor * Clarissa Ward, chief international correspondent for CNN

Notable staff

* Mary Cartwright *

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite '' The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

Annie Whitelaw Annie Watt Whitelaw (17 August 1875 – 11 August 1966) was a British headmistress and educationist. She was a headteacher in New Zealand and the first NZ woman to attend Girton College and to lead a British school. She led religious orders and ...

, Head from 1910 to 1925 * Elsie Bowerman, governor and school historian

References

External links

Wycombe Abbey official websiteProfile
on the

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