Hawtreys Preparatory School was a private boys' preparatory school in England, first established in Slough, later moved to Westgate-on-Sea, then to Oswestry, and finally to a country house near Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire. In its early years it was known as St Michael's School.

Hawtreys School
Location
Map
Slough, later Westgate-on-Sea, then Oswestry, and lastly Savernake Forest, Wiltshire

Coordinates51°22′37″N 1°38′38″W / 51.377°N 1.644°W / 51.377; -1.644
Information
TypePrivate preparatory school
Established1869
FounderReverend John Hawtrey
Closed1990s
Age7 to 13
Merged withCheam School
AlumniOld Hawtreyans
Websitewww.cheamschool.com

In 1994, the school merged into Cheam School, near Newbury, Berkshire.

History

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The school was founded in 1869 by the Reverend John Hawtrey. He had been a boy at Eton, from the age of eight. In later life he became a master at Eton and was offered his own house of boys. He decided to remove all of the younger boys from the school. With the permission of Eton College, he took the lowest two forms out to a separate school in Slough and housed them in what is now St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School, Slough. This was known as St Michael's School, and was opened on 29 September 1869 (St Michael's day).

John Hawtrey's son, Edward, removed the school to Westgate-on-Sea early in 1883.[1] When Edward Hawtrey died, the name of the school was changed to Hawtreys.

The school buildings were requisitioned during the Second World War and the school moved to Oswestry in Shropshire, to the home of Sir William Wynn-Williams. In 1946 it moved to Tottenham House, a large Palladian country house near the village of Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, in the heart of the Savernake Forest. Throughout the history of the school, a close connection was maintained with Eton College to which many boys moved at the age of thirteen.

In 1994, the school merged, amidst some controversy, with Cheam School, near Newbury, Berkshire, which is formally called Cheam Hawtreys, but generally known simply as Cheam.[2]

The staff and pupils were listed in the credits of A Feast at Midnight, a 1995 British comedy family film.

Old Hawtreyans

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And see Category:People educated at Hawtreys
 
Tottenham House, Wiltshire, final home of Hawtreys

Notes

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  1. ^ p 94, The History of Slough, Maxwell Fraser, Slough Corporation, 1973
  2. ^ The Independent website 10 July 1994 (accessed on 15 October 2011)
  3. ^ ANSTRUTHER-GOUGH-CALTHORPE, Sir Euan (Hamilton), 3rd Bt cr 1929[permanent dead link] in Who's Who online at xreferplus.com (accessed 28 November 2007)
  4. ^ MILBURN, Sir Anthony (Rupert), 5th Bt cr 1905[permanent dead link] in Who's Who online at xreferplus.com (accessed 28 November 2007)
  5. ^ a b The Independent, 10 July 1994, Transfer fees wheeze cuts old school ties (accessed 7 May 2010)
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