Denstone College is a mixed,

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 ...

, boarding and

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compa ...

Denstone Denstone is a village and civil parish situated between the towns of Uttoxeter in East Staffordshire and Ashbourne in Derbyshire. It is located next to the River Churnet. The All Saints village church, vicarage and school were built by Sir Tho ...

Uttoxeter Uttoxeter ( , ) is a market town in the East Staffordshire district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is near to the Derbyshire county border. It is situated from Burton upon Trent, from Stafford, from Stoke-on-Trent, from De ...

, Staffordshire, England. It is a Woodard School, having been founded by

Nathaniel Woodard Nathaniel Woodard (; 21 March 1811 – 25 April 1891) was a priest in the Church of England. He founded 11 schools for the middle classes in England whose aim was to provide education based on "sound principle and sound knowledge, firmly groun ...

, and so Christian traditions are practised as part of College life. It is a member of the

Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) is an association of the head teachers of 361 independent schools (both boarding schools and day schools), some traditionally described as public schools. 298 Members are based in the Unite ...

History

Nathaniel Woodard founded the school, originally called St Chad's College, as his flagship school in the Midlands, following earlier foundations in southern England. Work on the school began in 1868 and it opened in 1873 with 46 boys, under the direction of

Edward Clarke Lowe Edward Clarke Lowe (15 December 1823–30 March 1912) was an English educator and a key participant in the foundation and development of the Woodard Schools. Early life and education Lowe was born in Everton Liverpool, in 1823, the youngest s ...

, provost of the Midland district of the

Woodard Corporation Woodard Schools is a group of Anglican schools (both primary and secondary) affiliated to the Woodard Corporation (formerly the Society of St Nicolas) which has its origin in the work of Nathaniel Woodard, a Church of England priest in the Anglo- ...

. The buildings were designed by William Slater and Richard Carpenter in the

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. The school buildings, hall, chapel and war memorial are all Grade II listed. The school's chapel was built in 1879–87 by Carpenter and

Benjamin Ingelow Benjamin Ingelow (17 April 1835 – 1 January 1926) was an English architect who practised from an office in London. Biography Ingelow was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, where his father was a banker. His training started when he was articled to Arth ...

in a late 13th-century Gothic style; it consists of a four-bay nave with a polygonal apse. Land for the school was given by Sir Thomas Percival Heywood who owned the nearby Riverside Doveleys mansion. Sir Thomas was the school's first bursar. The war memorial, representing St George, stands in the Lonsdale quadrangle and was unveiled in 1925. The design was by Sir Aston Webb and Son and the sculptor

Alfred Drury Edward Alfred Briscoe Drury (11 November 1856 – 24 December 1944) was a British architectural sculptor and artist active in the New Sculpture movement. During a long career Drury created a great number of decorative figures such as busts an ...

. In the chapel is the provost’s Cross (an processional iron cross carried before the provost on formal occasions) which was a gift to the college by

Pope Shenouda III Pope Shenouda III (; cop, Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ϣⲉⲛⲟⲩϯ ⲅ̅ '; ar, بابا الإسكندرية شنودة الثالث '; 3 August 1923 – 17 March 2012) was the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See ...

, The Coptic Pope of Alexandria in Egypt. Day boys and girls were admitted in 1976, with girls’ boarding launched in two houses in 1981. A Royal and Ancient-accredited nine-hole golf course was opened in 1992, a new sports hall in 2000 and the schoolroom was completely refurbished as a modern theatre in 2003. A purpose-built music school and additional classrooms were completed in 2010. A further classroom block and the new sports pavilion and complex were completed in 2012, followed by a new library in 2014 and a university-style extension to girls boarding accommodation. The most recent addition to the school is the new languages and maths classroom block, titled "The Derbyshire Building", completed in 2017. The school is divided into the following houses, named after the founders and benefactors of the school: Heywood, Philips, Shrewsbury, Meynell, Woodard and Selwyn. Previously, there were two other houses, Lonsdale and Lowe, which now no longer exist. These were also named after benefactors of the school.

Preparatory School

Denstone College opened a preparatory school in 1902, which moved in 1938 to Smallwood Manor,

Marchington Woodlands Marchington Woodlands is a small village near Uttoxeter in Staffordshire. The population as taken at the 2011 census can be found under Marchington. It has a church and a village hall. The local first school was closed in the 1990s and the bu ...

. From 1959 to 1964 the headmaster was W. P. C. Davies. The school became co-educational and opened a pre-school department in 1983. It also provided boarding accommodation until 1997 but now is a day school for ages 2–11. In 2021 the preparatory school moved back to Denstone College and is now located in the former Classroom Block. It is now known as The Prep at Denstone College.

Expedition to Inaccessible Island

Denstone College is noted for carrying out the most extensive scientific exploration of

Inaccessible Island Inaccessible Island is a volcanic island located in the South Atlantic Ocean, south-west of Tristan da Cunha. Its highest point, Cairn Peak, reaches , and the island is in area. The volcano was last active six million years ago and is curren ...

, an

extinct volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

in the South Atlantic. A group of 16 teachers and pupils led by Michael Swales (then Head of Biology), sailed to the island, landing on 25 October 1982 and remained on the island until 9 February 1983, apart from an excursion to the island of

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena a ...

at Christmas. The members of the expedition managed to

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

3,000 birds during their stay on the island, and 17 research papers were produced. The hut that they built at Blenden Hall on the island was demolished in 2000.

Film location

The exterior of the school was used as a location for the convent where Novice Joyce Fuddle lived for episode 4 of the 1985 BBC comedy series ''

Happy Families Happy Families is a traditional British card game usually with a specially made set of picture cards, featuring illustrations of fictional families of four, most often based on occupation types. The object of the game is to collect complete fami ...

''.

Masters

;Notable staff * David Edwards, former physics teacher at the school who was the first man to win a million pounds on ''Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'' *

Arthur Calder-Marshall Arthur Calder-Marshall (19 August 1908 – 17 April 1992) was an English novelist, essayist, critic, memoirist, and biographer. Life and career Calder-Marshall was born in El Misti, Woodcote Road, Wallington, Surrey, the son of Alice (Poole) ...

, novelist and essayist, schoolmaster 1931–1933. *Moorhouse Clark (1872–1935), priest and classical master at the school for 20 years, buried at Harlow Hill Cemetery. ;Headmasters *1875–78 W. Bedell Stanford (died 1929) *1879–1903 D. Edwardes (died 1916) *1903–05 J. Ll. Dove *1905–19 F. A. Hibbert *1919–31 Roy M. Grier *1931– T. A. Moxon''The Denstone Register'' (1932); p. 349 * -1967 Barry Trapnell, cricketer

Old Denstonians

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Woodard Schools Anglo-Catholic educational establishments Boarding schools in Staffordshire Educational institutions established in 1868 1868 establishments in England Grade II listed buildings in Staffordshire Independent schools in Staffordshire Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference People educated at Denstone College