Friends' School, Saffron Walden

Coordinates: 52°00′58″N 0°14′32″E / 52.0162°N 0.2423°E / 52.0162; 0.2423
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Friends' School
The school in 1880
Location
Map
, ,
CB11 3EB

Coordinates52°00′58″N 0°14′32″E / 52.0162°N 0.2423°E / 52.0162; 0.2423
Information
Other nameWalden School (2016–17)
TypeDefunct Independent
MottoPer Ardua Ad Alta
Religious affiliation(s)Quaker
Established1702
Closed2017
HeadAnna Chaudhri (Senior school)
Sally Meyrick (Prep school)
GenderCo-educational
Age3 to 18
Enrolment375
Houses3: Tuke, Mennell and Lister
Colour(s)  (Lister)
  (Tuke)
  (Mennell)
FateClosed as no longer sustainable due to falling pupil numbers, etc.[1]

Friends' School (known as Walden School from 2016–17) was a Quaker independent school located in Saffron Walden, Essex,[2] situated approximately 12 miles south of the city of Cambridge, England. The school was co-educational and accommodated children between the ages of three and 18 (boarders and day pupils).

The school closed at the end of the 2017 summer term.[3]

History[edit]

Friends' School, Saffron Walden was founded as part of the Quakers' Clerkenwell workhouse in Islington in London in 1703, 50 years after George Fox. 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.[4]

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.[4] 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.[5]

In 1876 the mayor of Saffron Walden offered a new site for the school and in 1879 the school opened in Saffron Walden.[4]

In September 2016 the school changed its name to Walden School.[6]

On 11 May 2017 it was announced that Walden School would close at the end of the 2016–17 school year.[7]

Notable former pupils and associates[edit]

In popular culture[edit]

Carola Dunn's book Anthem for Doomed Youth is set at the school.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Steward, Michael (11 May 2017). "Saffron Walden private school set to close at end of summer term". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  2. ^ "Education | League Tables | Performance results for Friends School". BBC News. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  3. ^ BBC Look East, 26/6/17
  4. ^ a b c "Friends School, Clerkenwell, Croydon, Saffron Waldon". www.childrenshomes.org.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  5. ^ a b Hammer, Margaret A. E. (2004). "Brady [née Hutchinson], Elizabeth (1803–1874), headmistress". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52731. Retrieved 27 September 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ Chaudhri, Anna. "A Step Change For Friends'". Archived from the original on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  7. ^ Steward, Michael (11 May 2017). "Saffron Walden private school set to close at end of summer term". East Anglian Daily Times. Archived from the original on 11 May 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  8. ^ "Interview with Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin". V&A. Archived from the original on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2014.

Further reading[edit]

  • 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.

External links[edit]