Prior's Field 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 Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

girls'

boarding Boarding may refer to: *Boarding, used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals as in a: **Boarding house **Boarding school *Boarding (horses) (also known as a livery yard, livery stable, or boarding stable), is a stable where hor ...

and

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

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

in the south-east of England. Founded in 1902 by

Julia Huxley Julia Huxley (née Arnold; 1862–1908) was a British scholar. She founded Prior's Field School for girls, in Godalming, Surrey in 1902. Early life Born Julia Arnold in 1862 to Julia Arnold (née Sorell), the granddaughter of William Sorell, and ...

, it stands in 42 acres of parkland, 34 miles south-west of London and adjacent to the

A3 road The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classifie ...

, which runs between the capital and the south coast.

Overview

Today the school has 350 pupils aged 11 to 18 attend Prior's Field, with a third of UK and foreign students boarding on a full, weekly or flexible basis. The Headteacher is Ms Zoe Ireland, who joined in 2024 from Farnborough Hill, Surrey and is the school's 12th head. Prior's Field pupils typically take 10 GCSEs in Year 11 and have a choice of 24 A-levels in the Sixth Form. In 2024, at A Level, 51 per cent of girls achieved A*/A grades, 76 per cent A-B grades and the pass rate was 100 per cent. At GCSE, 28 per cent gained A* grades, 42 per cent A*-A and 61 per cent A*–B. Students participate in over 40 termly clubs, including creative writing, model UN, philosophy, drone club, chess and debating.

History

Prior's Field School opened on 23 January 1902, with only seven pupils. It was founded by

, the mother of

Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and Internationalism (politics), internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentiet ...

and

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

. Starting with a five-acre (2 ha) plot and a house designed by C.F.A. Voysey, Julia Huxley opened her school with one boarder, five day girls, a wire-haired terrier and her -year-old son, Aldous.''Prior's Field School - A Century Remembered 1902-2002'' by Margaret Elliott, published by Prior's Field School Trust Ltd, From its earliest days, the school encouraged a commitment to the

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

cause. By the time of Julia Huxley's death in 1908, Prior's Field was a thriving and successful school and one which was already taking the subject of women's suffrage very seriously. The school magazines show that the girls were passionately involved in what was happening around them, and we know that "discussions on Women's suffrage" … " raged up and down the school" (Prior's Field Magazine, 1908). The school motto, "We live by Admiration, Hope and Love," is from ''The Excursion'' by

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...

. The school magazine first appeared in June 1908, by which time there were 85 pupils and 86 Old Girls. Tragically dying in 1908 at the age of 46, Julia Huxley was only six years as Headmistress of Prior's Field. She was succeeded by Mrs Ethel Burton-Brown, who was Head from 1908 to 1927. Both Julia Huxley and Ethel Burton-Brown are buried in Compton Cemetery, the grave of the latter being designed by artist Mary Watts.

Architecture

Prior's Field, originally called Prior's Garth, was designed by prominent English

Arts and Crafts movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

architect C.F.A. Voysey. The house has been

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

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, ...

since May 1985. Many of Voysey's original features – stylised keyholes, door handles, air vents, and fireplaces – can still be seen in the school today, for instance in the Oak Hall, the Senior Common Room and the Bursary offices. The additions to the original house – formerly known as Private Side – were designed by Voysey's pupil, Thomas Müntzer.

Nature and the outdoors: Gardens inspired by Gertrude Jekyll

The design of Prior's Field's rose garden was created by Leonard Huxley in collaboration with

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British Horticulture, horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United Sta ...

. It includes

herbaceous border A herbaceous border is a collection of perennial herbaceous plants (plants that live for more than two years and are soft-stemmed and non-woody) arranged closely together, usually to create a dramatic effect through colour, shape or large scale. ...

s, dry

Bargate stone __NOTOC__ Bargate stone is a highly durable form of sandstone. It owes its yellow, butter or honey colouring to a high iron content. In some contexts it may be considered to be a form of ironstone. However, in the context of stone buildings local ...

walls, a dipping pond and rock garden. In the early years, the care of the gardens was in the hands of lady gardeners trained at

Swanley Horticultural College Swanley Horticultural College, founded in , was a college of horticulture in Hextable, Kent, England. It originally took only male students but by 1894 the majority of students were female and it became a women-only institution in 1903. Early his ...

. The school has long encouraged an appreciation of the outdoors and remains involved with the

scouting movement Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, includin ...

Prior's Field Centenary and 110th Anniversary

To mark the school's centenary in 2002, a £1.2 million sports hall was built. Designed in the style of Voysey and named the Centenary Sports Hall, it was opened by the physiologist and biophysicist

Andrew Huxley Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley (22 November 191730 May 2012) was an English physiologist and biophysicist. He was born into the prominent Huxley family. After leaving Westminster School in central London, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, ...

, the recipient of the 1963

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

and younger son of Leonard Huxley by his second marriage to Rosalind Bruce. The 110th anniversary of Prior's Field's foundation was marked in 2012 by a service in

Guildford Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford, commonly known as Guildford Cathedral, is the Anglican cathedral in Guildford, Surrey, England. Richard Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow, Earl Onslow donated the first of land on which the cathedral ...

, construction of an all-weather sports pitch opened by the British Olympian hockey player

Crista Cullen Chay Crista Kerio Cullen (born 20 August 1985) is an Olympic Gold Medal-winning English field hockey player. Hockey career Cullen made her senior international debut for England in 2003. She was part of the Great Britain squad which won Bronze ...

, and the annual Huxley Lecture in memory of the school's founder, delivered by the scientist and academic

Susan Greenfield Susan Adele Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, (born 1 October 1950) is an English scientist, writer, broadcaster and member of the House of Lords (since 2001). Her research has focused on the treatment of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's dise ...

in November. In September 2013, actress

Diana Rigg Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 1938 – 10 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series ''The Avengers (TV series), The Avengers'' (1965–1968); Countess Tracy Bond, Teresa di ...

opened a new three-storey teaching centre, siting the Creative Arts subjects in one area, providing six additional classrooms, a new school entrance and facilities for maths and modern languages. In March 2017, the former Prior's Field Head Julie Roseblade opened a new Science, Technology and Music Centre, named the Arnold Building in memory of the school's founder,

Notable alumnae

Patricia Angadi Patricia Clare Angadi (née Fell-Clark, 23 September 1914 – 26 June 2001) was a British portrait painter and novelist, perhaps best remembered for introducing the Beatles to Ravi Shankar. Early life She was born Patricia Clare Fell-Clark on 23 ...

(1914–2001), portrait painter and novelist *

Enid Bagnold Enid Algerine Bagnold, Lady Jones, (27 October 1889 – 31 March 1981) was a British writer and playwright best known for the 1935 story '' National Velvet''. Early life Enid Algerine Bagnold was born on 27 October 1889 in Rochester, Kent, ...

(1889–1981), playwright and author of ''The Chalk Garden'', ''National Velvet'' * Jill Bennett (1931–1990), actress * Alex Evans (born 1989), actress * Victoria Hamilton (born 1971), actress *

Heather Joan Harvey Heather Joan Harvey (September 1899 – 1989), was a British writer and Liberal Party politician. Background Harvey was educated privately at Prior's Field School, Godalming, and Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's cons ...

(1899–1989), English writer and

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

politician *

Lily James Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson (born 5 April 1989), known professionally as Lily James, is an English actress. She studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and began her career in the British television series '' Just Wi ...

(born 1989), actress *

Freda Utley Winifred Utley (23 January 1898 – 21 January 1978), commonly known as Freda Utley, was an English scholar, political activist and best-selling author. After visiting the Soviet Union in 1927 as a trade union activist, she joined the Communist P ...

(1898–1978), writer and activist *

Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock Helen Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock, (née Wilson; 14 April 1924 – 20 March 2019) was an English philosopher of morality, education, and mind, and a writer on existentialism. She is best known for chairing an inquiry whose report formed the ...

(born 1924), crossbench peer * Margaret Yorke (1924–2012), crime writer, winner of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, 1999 *

Tessa Tennant Teresa Mary "Tessa" Tennant ( Cormack; 29 May 1959 – 7 July 2018) was a British advocate of sustainable investment. She co-founded one of the UK's first green investment funds. She was a pioneer in the field of responsible investment and was ...

(1959–2018), advocate of sustainable investment *

Tilly Smith Tilly Smith (born 1994) is a British woman who, as a child, was credited with saving the lives of approximately 100 beachgoers at Mai Khao Beach in Thailand by warning them minutes before the arrival of the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocea ...

(born 1994), credited with saving the lives of about 100 beachgoers at Maikhao Beach in Thailand

Notable staff

* Jane Lunnon, later head of

Wimbledon High School Wimbledon High School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private girls' day school in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, South West (London sub region), South West London. It is a Girls' Day School Trust school and is a member of the Girls' ...

and

Alleyn's School Alleyn's School is a 4–18 Mixed-sex education, co-educational, independent, day school and sixth form in Dulwich, London, England. It is a registered charity and was originally part of Edward Alleyn's College of God's Gift charitable foundatio ...

Admission

The main entry ages for Prior's Field are 11+, 13+ and 16+. Girls attend a Preview Day in October, when they undertake a series of activities and have an informal interview. They then sit an Entrance Exam in November. At 16+, entrance is dependent on GCSE results and the outcome of an interview.

References

External links

*
The Independent Schools Inspectorate's (ISI) March 2011 Report on Prior's Field
{{authority control 1902 establishments in England Arts and Crafts architecture in England Boarding schools in Surrey Buildings by C.F.A. Voysey Educational institutions established in 1902 Girls' schools in Surrey Grade II listed buildings in Surrey Grade II listed educational buildings Houses completed in 1900 Private schools in Surrey