Friends' School (known as Walden School from 2016–17) was a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...
co-educational
Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...
day
A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...
and
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. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
located in
Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden is a market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. Th ...
,
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, situated approximately 12 miles south of the city of
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, England. The school taught pupils between the ages of three and eighteen.
The school closed at the end of the 2017 summer term.
History
Friends' School, Saffron Walden was founded as part of the Quakers' Clerkenwell workhouse in Islington in London in 1703, 50 years after
George Fox
George Fox (July 1624 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 13 January 1691 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English Dissenters, English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Quakers, Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as t ...
. The workhouse was for children and the elderly and the school moved out as a separate entity in 1786. It was now nearby in Clerkenwell and now known as the Friends' School. However the new building was damp and ill suited to teaching and learning.
In 1825 the school began operation in Croydon. There was initially 120 places for students who began at the age of nine. Children did not have to be members of the Quakers but these children were accepted first. In 1828 the school had a marriage when Elizabeth Hutchinson married Edward Foster Brady. They were both teachers and both former pupils of the school. In 1833 they became joint heads of the school, although Edward was ill and had been consumptive. He died in 1838 and Elizabeth Brady led the school until 1842.
In 1876 the mayor of Saffron Walden offered a new site for the school and in 1879 the school opened in Saffron Walden.
In September 2016 the school changed its name to Walden School.
On 11 May 2017 it was announced that Walden School would close at the end of the 2016–17 school year.
Notable former pupils and associates
*
Harriett Baldwin
Dame Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (; born 2 May 1960), is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for West Worcestershire since 2010 Un ...
, MP for West Worcestershire
* Ruth Barnett, (née Michaelis; Holocaust survivor and educator)
*
Edward Bawden
Edward Bawden, (10 March 1903 – 21 November 1989) was an English painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers, posters, and garden metalwork furniture. Bawden taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had be ...
, English painter, illustrator, graphic artist and
WWII
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
war artist
* Elizabeth Brady, student here and head of the school
*
Carola Dunn
Carola Dunn (born 14 November 1946) is a British writer of regency romances and detective fiction.
Life
Dunn attended Friends' School, Saffron Walden, and graduated from the University of Manchester.Ralph Erskine, Sweden-based architect and planner (pupil from 1925 to 1931)
* Matthew Evans, chairman and former managing director of Faber and Faber Ltd, and member of the House of Lords
*
Margery Fish
Margery Fish (née Townshend) (5 August 1892 – 24 March 1969) was an English gardener and gardening writer, who exercised a strong influence on the informal English cottage garden style of her period.
, gardener and writer
*
Imogen Heap
Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap ( ; born 9 December 1977) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur. She is considered a pioneer in pop music, particularly electropop, and in music technology.
While attending the ...
, singer-songwriter, record producer and audio engineer
*
Diana Wynne Jones
Diana Wynne Jones (16 August 1934 – 26 March 2011) was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually d ...
, novelist, poet and academic (pupil from 1946 to 1952)
*
E. V. Lucas
Edward Verrall Lucas, (11/12 June 1868 – 26 June 1938) was an English humorist, essayist, playwright, biographer, publisher, poet, novelist, short story writer and editor.
Born to a Quaker family in Eltham, on the fringes of London, Lucas beg ...
, humorist, essayist and playwright
* Tony Newton (Lord Newton of Braintree), politician
*
Deborah Norton
Deborah Norton (born 1944) is an English actress.
Personal life
Deborah Norton was born in Croydon, Surrey, in 1944. She attended a Quaker boarding school and later studied at the Drama Centre London. She worked in Britain until she toured A ...
, actress
* John Peet, journalist and translator of
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
*
John Raven
John Earle Raven (13 December 1914 – 5 March 1980) was an English classical scholar, notable for his work on pre-Socratic philosophy, and amateur botanist. His wife, Faith, inherited the 35,000 acre Ardtornish Estate in Argyllshire, Scotland ...
Byker Grove
''Byker Grove'' is a British teen drama and coming of age television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 on BBC One.
The show was set in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne and was filmed in nearby Benwell. It was created by writer Adele Rose a ...
'' and ''
EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...
'' and founder of
Khmer Mekong Films
Khmer Mekong Films (KMF) is a major Cambodian film and television production company based in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. Founded by Matthew Robinson, a former director and executive producer of the BBC television series '' Byker G ...
(pupil from 1958 to 1963)
*
Tom Robinson
Living people
Thomas Giles Robinson (born 1 June 1950) is a British singer, bassist, radio presenter and long-time LGBT rights activist, best known for the hits " Glad to Be Gay", " 2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with hi ...
, singer-songwriter and broadcaster (pupil from 1961 to 1967)
*
Jeremy Shearmur
Jeremy Shearmur (born 13 June 1948) is a British former reader in philosophy in the School of Philosophy at the Australian National University, who retired at the end of 2013. He is currently an emeritus fellow, lives in Dumfries, Scotland, an ...
, philosopher at Australian National University
* Malcolm Shepherd, politician, businessman and member of the House of Lords (pupil from 1929 to 1935)
* Sally Tuffin, fashion designer and ceramicist
*
Emily Young
Emily Young FRBS (born 1951) is a British sculptor, who has been called "Britain's greatest living stone sculptor". She was born in London into a family of artists, writers and politicians. She currently divides her time between studios in Londo ...
, sculptor
*
Daisy Johnson
Daisy Johnson, also known as Quake, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Gabriele Dell'Otto, the character first appeared in '' Secret War'' #2 ...
, writer
*
Adam Kendon
Adam Kendon (4 April 1934 – 14 September 2022) was one of the world's foremost authorities on the topic of gesture, which he viewed broadly as meaning all the ways in which humans use visible bodily action in creating utterances including not ...
, linguistician, one of the foremost authorities on the topic of
gesture
A gesture is a form of nonverbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or othe ...
(pupil from 1943-1952)
In popular culture
Carola Dunn's book ''Anthem for Doomed Youth'' is set at the school.
* ''The Avenue'' (school magazine).
* Bolam, W. D. (1952). ''Unbroken community: The story of the Friends' School, Saffron Walden, 1702–1952''.
* Buss, R. (2003). ''A Community through three centuries''.
* Crosfield, J. B. (1902). ''Saffron Walden School: a sketch of two hundred years''.
* Halter, H. (2002). ''The School on the hill: memories of three hundred years of Friends' School, Saffron Walden, 1702–2002''.
* Hitchcock, T. V. (ed.) (1987). ''Richard Hutton's complaints book: the notebook of the steward of the Quaker workhouse at Clerkenwell 1711–1737''.
* ''OSA Annual reports'', at Essex Record Office, Chelmsford.
* ''Saffron Walden Weekly''. Local newspaper founded in 1889. Good coverage of Friends School.
* Woods, J. C. (1979). ''Friends School: A hundred years at Saffron Walden 1879–1979''.