Hurstpierpoint College

Hurstpierpoint College is an independent, co-educational, day and boarding school for pupils aged 4–18, located just to the north of the village of Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex in the lee of the South Downs. The College was founded in 1849 by Canon Nathaniel Woodard and is a member of the Woodard Corporation.

History and overview

The school was originally established in 1849 as St John's Middle School, based in Shoreham. Its first headmaster, Rev. Edward Clarke Lowe, had worked with Woodard at Lancing College and stayed at Hurstpierpoint for 22 years until 1872. The school moved to Mansion House in Hurstpierpoint and then, thanks to the local benefactors the Campion Family, on 21 June 1853 made its final move to its present site. Intended to resemble the collegiate system at Oxford and Cambridge, Nathaniel Woodard designed the College to have adjoining Inner and Outer quads and the chapel and dining hall adjacent to each other.

The College has grown significantly in recent years and now provides education for boys and girls aged between 4 and 18 years. Tim Manly BA(Oxon) MSc(LSE) is Headmaster of Hurstpierpoint College, with overall responsibility for all four of the College's schools:

Hurstpierpoint

Coordinates: 50°56′00″N 0°11′07″W / 50.933288°N 0.185339°W / 50.933288; -0.185339

Hurstpierpoint is a village in West Sussex, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Burgess Hill, and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Hassocks railway station. Together with Sayers Common, it forms a civil parish with an area of 2029.88 ha and a population of 6,264.

History

Toponymy

The name derives from 'Hurst', the Old English name for a wood, and 'Pierpoint' after the de Pierpoint family who arrived with William the Conqueror in 1066. The settlement was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Throughout the centuries there have been several variants on the Hurstpierpoint name e.g. Herst (11th century); Herstperpunt (14th century); Perpondesherst (15th century).

The village is chiefly one long street running east and west and most of the buildings in it are of the 18th century or later.

Manors

The manor of Hurstpierpoint was held before the Norman Conquest by Earl Godwin, when it was an estate assessed at 41 hides, of which 3½ hides in the Rape of Pevensey and 19 hides in the Rape of Bramber were detached. After the Conquest, the remaining 18½ hides were held in 1086 by Robert de Pierpoint of William de Warenne. There was a church and 3 mills. The overlordship descended with the rape until the division after the death of Beatrice, Countess of Arundel, in 1439, when the 10 fees late of Robert de Pierpoint passed to the Duke of Norfolk. Subsequently the overlordship of Hurstpierpoint came into the hands of the Lords Bergavenny, and the manor was said in 1602 to have been held of their manor of Ditchling.