Cottesmore School


Cottesmore is a preparatory school in the United Kingdom, which has been preparing children for public schools since 1894. It is full boarding and there are 175 boys and girls from the ages of 4 to 13. Boarding starts at Year 4.

History

Cottesmore was founded by Geoffrey Davison Brown in 1894 in Hove, East Sussex. He named the school after Cottesmore, Rutland, where he was born. The new buildings for the preparatory school were officially opened on 19 June 1897. Davison Brown served as head master until his death in 1929, aged 60.
In 1940 the school was evacuated from the south coast of England, to Wales, initially at the Oakeley Arms Hotel, Tan-y-bwlch, Merioneth, later a former workhouse in Cors-y-Gedol Hall, near Barmouth, until the end of the war.

The school moved to its present site at Pease Pottage after World War II in 1946. The school is housed in a fine, Grade II-listed Victorian mansion known as Buchan Hill that was built in 1882-3 by Philip Felix Renaud Saillard who had made his money from ostrich feathers. The building is a large Elizabethan-style house, designed by the architects Ernest George and Harold Peto. Buchan Hill had been purchased in the early 19th century by Hon. Thomas Erskine, son of the Earl of Buchan.

Facilities

The school has of grounds, with a golf course, playing fields, cricket pitches, two astroturf fields, swimming pool, all-weather cricket nets, grass and hard tennis courts, fishing lake and gardens.

Awards