Author: Michael Chapman

This account traces the history of Winbury School under its headmaster John Spicer but delves back in time to when the school was founded and its link to Elmslie School.

Elmslie School

In 1870 a Mr Wilkinson who ran a publishing business in London, retired to Marlow bringing his daughter with him. It was not long after they arrived that a friend asked Miss Wilkinson to look after the education of her daughter who suffered from poor health. From this small beginning Elmslie School was founded. The school badge depicted a swan which was the Marlow town crest.

In 1879/80 the school moved to Maidenhead to the buildings in North Road. Some years later a Miss Silver joined Miss Wilkinson and took over the running of the school. Apparently Miss Silver was involved in the running of another school in the town. Miss Wilkinson retired in 1913 due to ill health. Numbers in the school increased, many of the tradespeople in the town sending their daughters to Elmslie. The school needed to acquire further property and the house next to Elmslie called Huntley became available and was purchased by the school. In 1920 the school started to cater for older girls and became a prep school.

In 1909 a Miss Theaker joined the staff and in 1914 a Miss Saunders also became a staff member and in 1925 they took over the running of the school. In 1936 the house on the corner of West Road and Hightown Road was purchased. This was called "Winbury". The name came about by an amalgamation of Canterbury and Winchester with whom the two ladies in question had an association. At this time a Mr Mortimore joined the staff with a view to running a boys department and the whole school becoming co-ed. The senior school from Elmslie moved to Winbury. In 1938 John Spicer joined the school with a view to taking over the running of the boys department from Mr Mortimore who wanted to retire. However the Second World War intervened and John Spicer was called up to serve in the army and so Mr Mortimore stayed on for a time but in 1939/40 female staff took over from Mr Mortimore but this was not a success and it appears that in 1943 the boys department ceased to accept new pupils and was closed.

After the war had ended John Spicer returned to the school to restart the boys department. Miss Theaker and Miss Saunders retired in 1947and Mr Spicer took over the running of the school which now separated from Elmslie and became a preparatory school for boys and the name Winbury School was kept. Mr Spicer retained the services of the handyman and gardener Mr Winkworth for a number of years to maintain the property and grounds.

Elmslie was run by a Miss Kyte and later in 1952 by a Miss Westlake. In the early Winbury School days Elmslie played a part in feeding boys in their kindergarten through to Winbury at the age of 6 or 7.

Winbury School

From 1946 the school grew and the school photographs from 1949, 1953 and 1960 show this. John Spicer investigated a number of properties with a view to moving the school to larger premises but none was found to be suitable and so the school remained at the West Road site until 1973.

Boys would take both the 11+ and Common Entrance exams and would move to senior schools including Maidenhead County Boys School and many of the Public Schools in the country . There seems to have been a strong link with Magdalen College School in Oxford to which a number of boys moved in the early days but others went to Ardingly, Bradfield College, Pangbourne Nautical College, Brighton College, Blundells, Beaumont Court, Dartmouth College , Newbury Grammar School, Stowe School, Clayesmore School to name but a few.

However in the mid 60's a group of boys stayed on at Winbury until the age of 15 when they left to become apprentices or take up further education at Technical Colleges.

The grounds of the school were not suitable or large enough for games and so boys had a long walk from Winbury along Braywick Road to Stafferton Lodge after lunch to play soccer, rugby or cricket and the annual Sports Day was also held here.

Stafferton Lodge

Stafferton Lodge had been a prep school from 1929 for boys aged 7 - 15 preparing them for Public Schools and the Royal Navy. It was run by Mr Francis George Luard MA (Cantab) and from 1940 he was joined by a junior partner Mr J L R Eyre. However the school appears to have been closed down by 1942 when it was turned into four apartments and by 1952 another apartment was created. At a later stage it was thought to have been used as a residential home before being taken over as a pub/restaurant.

When Braywick Road was turned into a dual carriageway and the area further developed as a rugby field and golf course a slice of the playing field was annexed and so Winbury games field moved to Hibbert Road in Braywick where Mr Spicer had purchased two sizeable fields.

Relocation of Winbury School

In the early 1970's the buildings and site of the school at West Road was sold to a property developer and demolished and flats erected on the site. The school moved to Hibbert Road and was eventually taken over and run by Margaret Perry who had been John Spicer's assistant. She started with 31 pupils and built up the numbers to 109 within two years. She left in the 1980's to go and live in Cornwall because of her husband's ill health. Mr Bob Graham became the third head of the school and stayed for 11 years. In 1991 Mr Graham retired and handed over to Mr Crehan. At some stage the school was taken over by the Golders Green School Trust and sadly they closed the school for good in 2011.

Some interesting facts about the school

The telephone number was Maidenhead 412.

Uniform

The uniform comprised a navy blue blazer with pink braid and with a badge depicting WS entwined in a shield. The cap had a similar badge with a pink ring around the crown. The football/rugby shirts were quartered pink and blue and shorts navy blue.

School Houses

Initially there were two houses - Pinks and Blues but this developed to three as the school expanded and they were named Normans, Saxons and Vikings and then on to four , named Drake, Howard, Raleigh and Hawkins.

Teachers

Some of the early teachers at Winbury included Mr Charles Smerdon, Mr Vincent Mercer, Mr Quinton-Barber, Major Freeth, Mr RG Saunders, Mrs Ivan-Smith, Mr Leslie Dundas, Mr Reid, Miss Marion Reeves and Mr Clegg. Later on Mrs Hankey, Mrs Warburton, Mr Michael Farrell, Mrs Burnett, Mr Handyside, Mrs Humphrey, Mrs Harrison, Miss Colgrave, Mr Priestnall, Mr Bradley and Mr Brown joined the staff.

School Plays

In the early days these included Treasure Island, Toad of Toad Hall, The Teddy Bears Picnic and Alice in Wonderland

The Lagonda

This open topped car must have been remembered by every boy in the early years. It was a magnificent looking beast and acted as the team bus for away matches , all eleven members of the team (plus the scorer for cricket) being squeezed into it's interior. Health and Safety rules were not considered!