Witham Hall School

Witham Hall School
Location
Witham on the Hill Bourne , Lincolnshire , PE10 0JJ England
52°44′16″N 0°26′45″W / 52.737912°N 0.445893°W / 52.737912; -0.445893
Information
Type	Preparatory day and boarding
Motto	Qui vit content tient assez
Religious affiliation	Church of England
Established	1959
Founder	J. W. E. ('Bill') Banks JP
Local authority	Lincolnshire
Department for Education URN	120727 Tables
Head	William S. D. Austen
Staff	39
Gender	Mixed
Age	4 to 13
Enrolment	c. 220
Houses	Banks, Maitland, Lyons, Tate
Colours	Blue, Red, Green, Yellow (respectively)
Website	https://www.withamhall.com

Witham Hall School is a coeducational independent boarding and day preparatory school in Witham on the Hill, Lincolnshire, England.¹

Witham Hall is a Georgian manor house, that is set in 15 acres of grounds, that was built as a private residence in 1752 by The Rev. Woolsey Johnson² (who was a descendant of Robert Johnson, Archdeacon of Leicester, who was the founder of Uppingham School and Oakham School,² for both of which Witham Hall School remains a preparatory school).³ The coat-of-arms of the school is that of Robert Johnson, Archdeacon of Leicester,² to whom they were granted in 1594, by Robert Cook, Clarenceux King of Arms. The motto of the school's coat-of-arms is Qui vit content tient assez, which is the Norman French for He who lives happily has enough.²

The family of Robert Johnson, Archdeacon of Leicester, had resided in the adjacent village of Witham-on-the-Hill, and Witham Hall was inherited by his descendant Lieutenant-General William Augustus Johnson MP.⁴

The house is described by renowned architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner in his Buildings of England. The core of the house, consisting of five bays between the east front and the west front, dates from 1752 to 1756, although its style, especially its moulded window surrounds, is characteristic of the earlier 18th century (which has led some observers to miscategorise it as a Queen Anne period building). No features from the Georgian period remain inside. The exterior was redeveloped, between 1903 and 1905, by Andrew Noble Prentice, who created an H-shaped plan for the house and added a range on the east side. Along the drive, stretching from the west side of the house to the main entrance, is a sequence of three pseudo-Jacobean arches, dating from 1876, 1830, and 1906, respectively.⁵ The hall and its arches are Grade II listed buildings.⁶ Its stable block was converted to a music school in 1979 by Rex Critchlow.⁷

There is a brass plaque over the front entrance to the house said to bless anyone who keeps it safe and curse anyone who harms it, which has remained in position since 1752.⁸

The house remained a private residence until the 1950s.² After the Johnson family, the house was owned by the Fenwick family, who were a distinguished clergy family from Northumberland,⁹ who entertained Noël Coward at the house.³ After the Fenwick family, the house was owned by the Crichton-Maitland family, after whose member Colonel Maitland the first of the school's houses, Maitland, is named.¹⁰ At the house, the Maitland family entertained composer Sir Walford Davies, Master of the King's Music, who wrote his most famous piece, God Be In My Head, in its study.³

In 1958, the house was bought by farmer J. W. E. ('Bill') Banks JP,³ who was an importer of Koni shock-absorbers for sportscars,¹¹ who was the owner of the nearby Witham on the Hill Manor.³ The second of the school's houses, Banks, is named after him.¹⁰ Witham Hall School was founded in 1959, but the first headmaster was fired after only 6 months.³

University of Cambridge educated Peter Stanley Lyons (who had served as Director of Music of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and as director of music and deputy headmaster of the musically renowned Wells Cathedral School) was appointed as the school's second headmaster in 1961.¹²¹³ Lyons moved to the school with his wife, Bridget Webb-Jones,³ who was the daughter of the choral educator James William Webb-Jones, who had been the headmaster of St George's School, Windsor Castle.¹⁴ Webb-Jones died at the house in 1965¹⁵ and is buried, with his wife Barbara Bindon Moody, in the adjacent Church of St. Andrew.¹⁶ Lady Walford Davies, the wife of composer Sir Walford Davies, who had written his most famous piece, God Be In My Head, in Witham Hall's study when Witham Hall was a private residence, was the godmother of Bridget Lyons.³

Witham Hall School flourished under the Lyons's 28 year leadership, in which the number of pupils increased from 20 at the time at which they started to 150 by the time that they retired in 1989, by which time the school had become a feeder school for Eton College⁸ in addition to for the local public schools Uppingham School, Oakham School, Oundle School,⁸ and The Leys School, with all of which it maintains a reciprocal events calendar.³ Lyons boasted that he knew the birthday of every pupil.³ It was also under the Lyons's tenure that the school developed its reputation for musical prowess; and that the school was inspected by the Ministry of Education and was subsequently granted the status of an Educational Trust, in 1978; and that the school first admitted girls, in 1983.³

During Lyons's tenure as headmaster, the Chairman of the Governors of the school was Air Vice-Marshal Robert Michael ('Bobby') Robson (d. 2023), who had been an RAF Avro Vulcan bomber navigator.¹⁷

The third of the school's houses, Lyons, is named after Peter and Bridget Lyons.¹⁰ The fourth of the school's houses, Tate, is named after John Tate, who was a long-serving master at the school.¹⁰ The school's original sports hall (which when it opened in 1987 was one of the largest in the country) was named the Lyons Hall by the governors and parents of the school in honour of the Lyons family.³ The Lyons Hall was demolished in 2016 to create space for a new sports centre.¹⁸ Lyons retired in 1989¹²¹³ and died in 2006.¹⁹

The school has an The Old Boys' Society that was founded during the tenure of the Lyons.³

The next headmasters of the school were:

D. H. Burston, 1989–1997;²

D. Telfer, 1997–2009;²

A. C. Welch, 2009–2020;²

W. S. D. Austen, 2020–present.²²⁰

The school has been described as 'a first-rate establishment – almost worth having another baby for' by one parent.⁸ The school's former headmaster Charles Welch was voted the best Headmaster of a preparatory school by the Tatler in 2016.²¹

• Joshua Leakey VC²²
• Fergus Cochrane-Dyet OBE (born 1965), diplomat