Wealden Times | WT175 | September 2016 | Education supplement inside

WT Education Supplement
The main entrance
Lindie Louw, Hazelwood School
‘Dull and inclined to rain. A very eventful day! The opening
of the first Hazelwood term!! Of course Edward and I felt
very festive and excited. We simply slaved all morning and
it is a wonder how we kept everything in our heads. There
were thousands of details to consider and things were only
just finished in time. The boys’ entrance door was being
painted when they arrived. The boys were immensely
taken with the place and there was no home sickness.’
“This entry is from the diary of Ruth Baily, from the
day when she and her husband first threw open the heavy
oak door to the now Main (and then only…) Building
of Hazelwood School in 1890, to just thirteen pupils.
125 years on, the school campus has grown
to satisfy the demands of over 400 students.
Occupying an elevated position, Hazelwood School
enjoys wonderful and far-reaching views across
the Kent Weald towards the Ashdown Forest.
Each day the pupils benefit from what Mr and
Mrs Baily called ‘lungfuls of fresh air’, a phrase which
was recently incorporated into the new school motto
Spiritu Inspiratum, ‘lungfuls of inspiration’.
Since that first ‘eventful day’ the school has played
host to generations of eager learners including eminent
newspaper columnist Simon Jenkins, musician Joe
Stilgoe and Geoffrey St. George Shillington Cather, who
was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross in 1916 for
his bravery rescuing injured comrades from no man’s
land on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
From September, future generations will be able
to follow in their footsteps and feel ever more part of
the school’s historic foundation, when the doors of
the new Baily Building will open for the first time.
Housing fourteen classrooms, music and art
rooms and a 450 seat auditorium, the beautifully
designed building sits beneath a softly undulating roof
contoured into the most precious of landscapes.
The façade of the main building is reflected in the
expanse of glass which fronts the new, bringing together
Hazelwood’s glorious past with its most exciting future.”
Kate Elliott, Bricklehurst Manor School
“The main school building has a long history dating
back more than 800 years and is now Grade II Listed
and the setting is truly ancient. We know there was a
Romano-British iron ore settlement on the banks of the
river Limden, across the road, dating back to AD120 and
Roman coins and Samian pottery have been found there.
After that era, the site was abandoned and the area
reverted to woodland, known as the Forest of Anderida.
The earliest mention of Bricklehurst, however, is as
Beorhtela’s Hurst, which originated from a Saxon tribe
who settled in the area after the Romans left. Hurst
is the word for a wood/clearing or wooded hill.
By 1296 it was spelt Breytlehurst or Brixlehurst and
then again by 1429 it is mentioned as Brickelhurst. The
first known owner of the land was Peter de Scotney in
1279 and 200 years later John Wybarne lived here. The
Wybarne family held the manor for the next 200 years
and there is a brass plaque depicting John Wybarne
as a knight with his two wives at Ticehurst church.
After that very little is known about it until the First
World War when Major Archibald Douglas Shelley
lived here and then Henry Hussey, brother of Edward
Hussey from Scotney Castle owned it. Soldiers were
billeted here at some point during the two wars and
then evacuees during the Second World War. Alan
Dickson, who stayed here as a child during WW2 after
being evacuated from London, once told me a tale of
sitting up all night in an attic area with a cricket bat to
fend off a ghost, who failed to materialise for him…
The school was founded in 1959, by the late Liz
Eberlie, in what was a private house and it still retains
many home-like characteristics, with a friendly, family
atmosphere which helps young children bridge the
gap between home and school, enabling them to gain
confidence in the security of familiar surroundings.
The entire building has been added to over
the years and the result has an interesting mix of
window styles, in particular. The original 13th
century building has walls 23 inches thick!
There are astounding views of the South Downs from the
second floor in particular and quiet areas in the grounds
where one can contemplate life. It is without doubt an
exceptionally pleasant and beautiful place to be.”
The school was started
in a private house
21 wealdentimes.co.uk