Amersham's Schools

Amersham's Old Schools

Below are details of some of the schools which have closed in Amersham.

Over the years, a number of schools have closed in Amersham.

At one time, Amersham had a number of private education establishments, many of which were very small. Most of these have now closed.

Raans School.

Opened in the 1950s as a mixed school, then a boys school following the opening of Brudenell school for girls, the school closed in the 1980s with the boys being transferred to Brudenell which was renamed The Amersham School.

For more details about Raangs, see the Raans School page

(Picture Courtesy of Dave James)

Elmodesham House

High Street, Old Amersham
Now luxury flats, it was between 1829 and 1861 a school for the "Sons of Liberal Gentlemen".

The original home of Dr. Challoners Grammar School was in Market Square, Old Amersham

Turret House on Station Road has had many uses.
It was once a private boys preparatory school, although around the time of World War II it also taught girls It was also at one time The Fabian School of Dancing

Gerald Goldberg remembers "-

"I attended the school during the 2nd World War, when Mr Graver was the headmaster. At morning assembly he would all make us blow our noses before singing hymns. I used to have school lunches, sitting at a table with cutlery exactly positioned, eating in a correct manner with the correct cutlery for the course, and talking was forbidden. If you did start talking, you were made to take your food out of the dining room and sit on the nearby staircase to eat your meal. I was left handed, and if writing during a lesson in this way, I would be struck on that hand and made to change to my right hand. In this way in a few weeks I became ambidextrous which even to this day in my 84th year I can still do. I still have letter sent to me from Mr Graver just after the war having returned to London with my parents. The things taught to me during those school days gave me my good manners, attention to doing the right things in life which will always remain, and I remember those days with affection and also an emotion of fondness to dear Mr Graver."

Kingsley House School
Woodside Road
(Private School - can anyone provide any more details?)

St. Nicholas School
(Mixed 4 to 8 years)
White Lion Road

Amersham College / Becketts
Derek Taylor remembers Amersham College, a private co-ed school located approximately 150 yards from the junction with Green Lane on Woodside Road going towards Black Horse Bridge. It had about 100 students attended and the grounds went back to Mitchell Walk. Believed to have existed from the 1930s to the 1960s.

In the 1960s it turned into Beckets.

Pete Wood remembers "When my Dad was called up on the 1st of September 1939, we moved to my mother's parents who lived at 47 Woodside Road (later re-numbered to 115). My mother thought that only the "rough" kids attended Blackhorse Bride School so I was enrolled at Amersham College. Mr. and Mrs. Holland ran the school and the 5 to 10 year olds were taught in a wooden hut classroom by Mrs. Holland, a rather bucksome but very loving North Country lady. I remember a cold Winter's day when the pipes had frozen so that we could not use the school toilets and the classroom was so cold that Mrs. Holland rubbed our hands to warm them enough that we could write our lessons. The playing field was a rough area that extended as far as Mitchell Walk, before that street was paved and houses were built." Gill Bilski adds "it was open until the mid? 60s. It was a boys' secondary school at that stage I think and was run by Mr. Gabb of Clifton Road. I vaguely remember boys wearing a black uniform. I would have been roughly 102-108 Woodside Road. I can't remember the building(s) at all though. After it closed in Woodside Road (they sold the land for houses), it moved to Little Hampden ... I think down the track beyond the Rising Sun. I think it closed in the 1980s."

Brian J. Dooley remembers "Went there in the late '60s, and it was called, impressively, "Amersham College of St. Thomas a Beckett." The colours were black, purple and white. I still have the tie, and I think my sister has the old cap. I was only there about two years. Classes were in a prefabricated block, and there was an out building that served as a library, and I think another one that served as a hall, and also had a toilet block. One could trumpet a most outrageous moaning sound into the abandoned plumbing through an external pipe. The school was run by Mr. Gabb; Mr. Sheffield was Science and Maths, I believe; Mr. Gantley was Proctor of Discipline, and therefore responsible for the caning. There was a "fives" court built at one point, which got plenty of high velocity use. The prefabrication was such that when Jeremy (Stick) threw his father's bayonet into the wall it collapsed into the next classroom."

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