Sherborne School

Sherborne School, marketed as Sherborne Boys, is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in AD 705 by St Aldhelm and, following the dissolution of the monasteries, re-founded in 1550 by Edward VI, making it one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom. Sherborne is one of the twelve founding member public schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in 1869 and is a member of the Eton Group and Boarding Schools Association.

Sherborne educates about 540 boys, aged 13 to 18, and three quarters of its 2021 A level results were A or A* grades. Many of the school buildings are on the National Heritage List for England, including seven listed as grade I, four listed as grade II*, and 19 listed as grade II; the Courts' south side is a scheduled monument.

The school also has a branch located in Doha, Qatar which was built following the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani's time at the school.

History

705–1539

Sherborne was founded as a cathedral school when, in 705 AD, King Ine of Wessex instructed Aldhelm, a churchman and distinguished scholar, to found a cathedral and college of clergy at Sherborne to relieve pressure from the growing see of Winchester. It is one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom.

Anglo-Saxon masonry survives in the Beckett Room, below the school library, a reminder that Sherborne continues to occupy part of the Saxon Cathedral to which it owes its foundation. Alfred the Great, King of the Anglo-Saxons, is said to have been an early pupil of the school, a tradition supported by the seat of West Saxon government having moved to Sherborne in 860 (after Winchester was sacked by the Danes) when Alfred was about 11 years old. That Alfred's son, later Bishop of Sherborne, was also educated at a cathedral school (in Winchester following its recovery by Wessex) is regarded as additional presumptive evidence in support of the claim. Aldhelm was the first Bishop of Sherborne, and the school remained under the direction of Sherborne's bishops until 1122, when its supervision passed to the abbot of the Benedictine monastery which had been established at Sherborne by Wulfsige III in 998. The school continued under monastic direction until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1539.

The school continues to occupy the site of the former monastery; the school chapel (12th century, modified in the 15th, 19th, and 20th centuries), library (13th century, 15th-century roof and windows), and the Abbot's House (c. 1480), occupied by the headmaster and the senior staff, are all former monastic buildings. The outlines of the monastic cloister, and curious first-floor Abbot's Chapel, are visible on the walls beyond the Abbot's House.

1539–1550

While the dissolution of the Benedictine Monastery of Sherborne in 1539 had an impact on administration and finances, Sherborne School remained in continuous operation, as evidenced by extant documents including the abbey churchwardens' accounts for 1542, which record a rent received from the school, and conclusively from a note on the certificate for Dorset under the Chantries Act, dated 14 January 1548, which records the school at Sherborne as continuatur quousque [long continued]. – together with a good endowment of lands that the school might ever endure. A beautifully engrossed royal charter was sealed on 13 May 1550, under which the school was to have a headmaster and usher for the education of boys, and a board of twenty governors under a warden. A further note of continuity was struck when the last headmaster of Sherborne under the old foundation, William Gibson, was appointed as the first headmaster under the new foundation.

When Edward VI re-founded Sherborne, he granted the school an endowment of valuable lands which belonged to abolished chantries in the churches of Martock, Gillingham, Lytchett Matravers, Ilminster and the Free Chapel of Thornton in the parish of Marnhull. measuring just under , including the remaining old monastic buildings, though these had been converted for use as a silk mill c1740. This more than doubled the size of the school site and contributed hugely to the school's development thereafter. The old monastic buildings were restored and converted into a chapel, dormitories, big schoolroom, and classrooms in 1853, allowing the creation of additional facilities and further prospects for the school. The old Abbey Silk Mill (not to be confused with the silk mill in the old monastic buildings) was converted into a workshop, concert room, museum, armoury, and laboratories, and a swimming bath was dug nearby, followed by the building of the fives courts the following year. The sanatorium in was completed in 1887, and the next big construction project was the Carrington Building in 1910, incorporating and replacing (in part) the old Abbey Silk Mill, to be used as new laboratories and classrooms. A new workshop was completed ten years later, forming what is now the Devitt Court. Over the years many more construction projects were completed, including the sports centre in 1974, the largest most recently being the Music School in 2010.

On 1 June 1950 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Sherborne School and took part in the celebrations marking the four hundredth anniversary of the granting of Sherborne's royal charter.

Established in 1977, Sherborne International is an independent co-educational boarding school, owned and governed by Sherborne School, for those from non-British educational backgrounds who wish to improve their English language skills before moving on to study at boarding schools elsewhere in the United Kingdom. It is located in Sherborne, occupying its own campus, Newell Grange, while sharing some facilities with Sherborne School. In 2009 Sherborne founded Sherborne Qatar Prep School in Doha, Qatar, followed by Sherborne Qatar Senior School in 2012.

In 2005, 50 of the country's leading independent schools, including Sherborne, were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, which had allowed them to drive up tuition fees. Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000. All schools involved in the scandal agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling £3 million into a trust. The trust was designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared. However, Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, and were following a long-established procedure in sharing information with each other, and were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."

Sherborne School merged with Sherborne Prep School in April 2021. Sherborne Prep School is a co-educational independent preparatory school for boys and girls aged 3–13 years, affiliated to the Independent Association of Prep School (IAPS). Sherborne has a partnership with the neighbouring Sherborne Girls school. While both are single-sex boarding schools, a programme of shared academic, co-curricular and social activities enables Sherborne boys and girls to mix and work together.

Former boarding houses

{| class="wikitable"

! House !! Letter !! Dates

! colspan="3" | House Colours

| Ramsam House || – || 1855–60,

1868–90

| style="background:#1919d2; width:7px;" | || style="background:#000000; width:7px;" | || Blue and Black

|Abbey Cottage

| –

|1858–72

| –

|Westbury House || g || 1885–90

| style="background:#f9f9f9; width:7px;" | || style="background:#000000;" | || White and Black

| Westcott House || h || 1920-1999

| style="background:#f9f9f9; width:7px;" | || style="background:#000000; width:7px;" | || White and Black

From 1899 to 1902, Ramsam House, renamed as Wingfield House, was the first home of Sherborne Girls' School before moving to their current site. Abbey Cottage, now the bursary, was the first location of Sherborne Preparatory School, though it was used to board a few Sherborne School boy as well. It relocated to Westbury House, now Wessex House, in 1872, and finally to its current site in 1885, when the Preparatory School became independent.

Westbury House, formerly the Bell Inn, was used solely for Sherborne School boys from 1861 to 1868, it was then used again to house Sherborne Preparatory School, as well as the boarders from Abbey Cottage, 1872–85. in the Sherborne year,

The Michaelmas Term, from early September to mid December. New boys are admitted at the start of the Michaelmas Term.
The Lent Term, from mid-January to late March.
The Trinity Term, from late April to late June.

Houses

thumb|right|School House, whose cornerstone was laid on 26 June 1860 by the Earl of Shaftesbury, has been in continuous use as a boarding house to this day.

Sherborne is a full boarding school for boys with boarding houses operating on the house system. In addition to a house master, each house has a matron, assistant matron, senior tutor and one or more resident tutors. Each house has around 70 boys from across all year groups.

There are eight boarding houses:

{| class="wikitable"

! House !! Distinctive letter

! Date founded

! colspan="3" | House Colours

| School House || a || 1860

| style="background:#cc00cc; width:7px;"| || style="background:#000000; width:7px;"| || Magenta and black

| Abbey House || b || 1868

| style="background:#663096; width:7px;"| || style="background:#000000; width:7px;"| || Purple and black

| The Green || c || 1865

| style="background:#FBDB0C; width:7px;"| || style="background:#000000; width:7px;"| || Yellow and black

| Harper House || d || 1873

| style="background:#add8e6; width:7px;"| || style="background:#000000; width:7px;"| || Light blue and black

| Wallace House || e || 1931

| style="background:#cc0000; width:7px;"| || style="background:#1919d2;"| || Red and navy

| Abbeylands || f || 1872

| style="background:#cc0000; width:7px;"| || style="background:#000000;"| || Red and black

| Lyon House || g || 1912

| style="background:#002147; width:7px;"| || style="background:#000000;"| || Dark blue and black

| The Digby || m || 1964

| style="background:#007f00; width:7px;"| || style="background:#000000;"| || Green and black

Abbey House has been in continuous use since 1868, but it was also used from 1835 to 1849.

Wallace House (formerly Elmdene) was originally used as a 'waiting house', but in 1977 it became a full house and was renamed Wallace House after headmaster Alexander Ross Wallace.

In 1999, The Green moved from the Old Green (formerly the Angel Inn) to its current site at Greenhill House (formerly the site of Sherborne International, until 1991). The Old Green was then converted into housing.

Sherborne School houses are separated into in and out houses, with in houses situated near to the school, and out houses spread out around the town. In: a, b, c, f. Out: d, e, g, m.

In March 2026 it was announced Wallace House would be closing at the end of the academic year due to the increased operating costs caused by the imposition of 20% VAT on independent schools.

School features

Chapel and library

thumb|left|View of the Abbey from Sherborne School Courts

The school chapel was originally the monastic hall (built in the early 15th century over the 12th century undercroft) used by the Abbot of Sherborne Abbey. It was in use as a silk mill from c. 1740 and was acquired by the school in 1851 from Lord Digby. It was restored and extended, and in 1855, consecrated as a chapel, dedicated to St John the Evangelist. It has been extended several times: eastwards in 1853; westwards in 1865; northwards, to create the north aisle, in 1878 and; eastwards in 1881 (into the headmaster's building); westwards and northwards in 1922 to extend the nave, and create the antechapel which has the names engraved of those who died in World War I and World War II. The Side Chapel, created by knocking through into the School House Studies (now the headmaster's building) in 1881, was dedicated to St Andrew in 1988 and has its own altar.

thumb|right|Sherborne Library north end

The library was the "Abbot's Guesten Hall" (13th century, modified 15th century) and would have looked over the Garth and conduit before the latter was moved to the town's market place in 1553. The building was a silk mill from c. 1740 and later still, perhaps, a brewery. It was acquired by the school in 1851 and restored in 1853. The Upper Library was used as the main school assembly room up until 1879 (when the Big Schoolroom was built) and has been used as the main school library since. but since 1926 it has been used as the Lower Library. In 1981 the library expanded into the 12th century undercroft below the chapel.

Old Schoolroom and The Slype

The Old Schoolroom (OSR) is the oldest of the buildings specifically designed for school use and was the original "scholehouse" built in 1554, on the site of an earlier "schole". The building as seen today dates from when it was rebuilt in 1606 with the architect believed to have been Inigo Jones (1573–1652). High on the east wall is an effigy of Edward VI, sculpted by Godfrey Arnold in 1614. A bay window was added to the South wall in 1886 when the building was undergoing another restoration. The windowsills of the OSR are made out of old school desks and are covered, on both upper and under faces, with historic graffiti of boys' names, the earliest known being from 1698.

A "New Schoolhouse with Offices" was built to the north in 1607, providing space for a writing school with a library above (the latter is now the School House Oak Room). The Old Schoolroom was used for the town's assizes from 1604 for around 85 years, and from 1645 to 1649 it was occupied by a garrison from the Civil War.

The Slype is a lean-to building against the north transept of the abbey and is the only surviving part of what would have been the monks' dormitory. On the lower floor, there is a passage with 12th-century arcading, as well as two 13th-century vaulted chambers. The passage would have led from the cloisters towards the monk's infirmary. It was probably used in part as a mortuary before monks were buried, and a number of skeletons have been found on the site. It was brought into the school's use in 1550, as part of the Royal charter, and has since been used as a brewery, laundry, vegetable store, lumber shed, boot room, and ravens' nook.

Bow House and Abbey Grange

thumb|right|Bow House has been owned by the school since 1916, and the Senior Common Room since 1921

Bow House is thought to date from the 14th century, but probably rebuilt in the 16th or 17th century. It became an inn c1850 and in 1916 the school bought the building as a staff common room, which it remains as today.

Built in the 14th or 15th century, the Abbey Grange was originally the monastic granary. In 1827 it was converted into a dwelling by an OS governor, and in 1969 the governors bought the property to house the headmaster and their family.

St Emerenciana's Chapel and Abbeylands

Now known as Nethercombe Farm, this building is in the grounds of Sherborne International. It dates from the late 14th century and was originally a hall-house with attached barn. It is the only religious building in the country to have been dedicated to this saint.

The oldest part of Abbeylands, fronting onto Cheap Street, dates from the 16th century. It was extended in 1649 and again in 1872. It is said that there is an underground passage that runs from the cellars at Abbeylands to Sherborne Abbey, but this has never been substantiated.

The Shell House

Within the garden of Harper House is a very rare and early example of a classically inspired shell house. It dates from c. 1750 though it likely originated as a C17 dovecote. All of the shells are native to the British Isles, with the majority coming from the Dorset coast. There is a small ice room beneath.

Subjects

Music

thumb|right|Sherborne School Choir sings in twice weekly services attended by the whole school in the Abbey.

Music is a Sherborne tradition. Many boys achieve grade 8 distinctions for voice and a range of instruments. Several boys each year also pass their ATCL diplomas, many with distinction. Some then go on to take their LTCL diplomas. The Week Good Schools Guide named Sherborne as The Best Independent School in the Country for Music in 2015.

In 2010 Sherborne built a new music school with highly specialist recital and recording space. Designed by Richard Keating of Orms, the building won numerous architectural awards including the 2012 RIBA South West Region Award, BCSE Award 2012 and RIBA South West Excellence in Architecture Award 2012. The school has two choirs, two close harmony groups, a symphony orchestra, sinfonia, chamber orchestra, concert and radio orchestras (Trinity term only), wind band, wind quintet, string, wind, brass and jazz ensembles and various other smaller instrumental ensembles. Performance spaces include the Tindall Recital Hall, the Big Schoolroom, and the Powell Theatre. There are two Abbey services a week which are accompanied by the chapel choir, with the chamber choir singing an introit on Sundays. Once a term the chamber choir sings for a service in an external venue. These include: Salisbury Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral and various Oxford college chapels, amongst numerous others, as well as these, international tours are available for various ensembles.

The Sherborne School Choral Society was founded in 1871 by J R Sterndale-Bennett, the then director of music. Nowadays it consists of the Sherborne School choirs, Girls' School Choir, and members of public from the local area. It performs annually, and concert venues have included Sherborne Abbey, Wells Cathedral, and Poole Lighthouse. The school song is the Carmen Saeculare, also known as Carmen Shirburniense, and features a rousing last line in each verse of Vivat Rex Eduardus Sextus or Long Live King Edward the Sixth to commemorate the school's Royal foundation in 1550. The words were written by Edward Mallet Young in 1887, and set to music by Louis Napoleon Parker. It is sung by the entire school, including the staff, although only the first and last verses are sung nowadays. Sherborne holds its own rock festival in the heart of its historic grounds, aptly named "Concert in the Courts", featuring Shirburnians and boys and girls from local senior schools, performing and spectating. The festival began in the mid 1990s and the proceeds from it are donated to charity.

In the chapel there are two organs: one is a 24-stop Neo-Baroque pipe organ by S.F. Blank; the other is a Hauptwerk virtual organ with the specification of the Hereford Cathedral organ. This organ was installed by Magnus and is the largest instrument they have installed in the UK.

Sport

The school's cricket ground – the Upper – is usually used by the 1st XI cricket team. The ground was first used in 1870, when Sherborne School played Clifton College. The ground is also one of the venues used by Dorset for their home fixtures. Dorset played their first match on the ground in the 1902 Minor Counties Championship against Devon. From 1902 to 1997, the ground played host to 69 Minor Counties Championship matches, with the final Championship match involving Dorset coming in 1997 when they played Herefordshire. In addition, the ground has hosted 13 MCCA Knockout Trophy matches, the last of which was in 2008, when Dorset played Buckinghamshire.

The ground has also played host to a single List A match, when Dorset played Bedfordshire in the 1968 Gillette Cup. On 30 May 2010, Dorset played Somerset, which included international players such as Craig Kieswetter in a friendly Twenty20 fixture on the ground. On 27 May 2011, the Upper hosted Dorset against Gloucestershire.

Rugby

Rugby has been played at Sherborne since 1846. Sherborne was the third school to take up the sport after Rugby itself and Cheltenham, and it competes in an invitational tournament, the Veterrimi IV, involving the four oldest rugby-playing schools. The school has played over 100 matches against local rivals Downside, and the Pilgrims (Old Shirburnians) played their 100th match against Radley in 2015. Robert Hands, a former sports journalist for The Times, has written a history of rugby at Sherborne School.

A number of old boys and staff have reached the international stage, including Mike Davis who was a teacher and coach at Sherborne School (1974–2002) where, alongside Phil Jones between 1975 and 1978, he coached the school to four unbeaten seasons with 35 out of 35 school matches being won. Only a handful of games were lost during a coaching partnership which spanned six seasons. He was appointed as head coach of England for the 1979/83 seasons, the only England senior coach ever appointed on the merits of their achievements as a school coach rather than a club coach. In his first season as the England coach, they won the Grand Slam in the 1980 Five Nations Championship, their first championship clean sweep since 1957.

Other sports

Sherborne also compete in various other sports, these sports include;

Clay Shooting

Clay shooting has been run at Sherborne for many years, they train at Mendip shooting ground in early 2026, the boys secured 5th out of 30+ teams at the inter schools challenge at Purdey at the Royal Berkshire shooting grounds, along with 4th out of 33 teams at the national Fido May cup, hosted by Harrow School at E.J. Churchill. The Sherborne Clay Shooting teams are renowned for their uniform, at most of the competitions they will be seen in nothing other than a tweed suit with a few exceptions for the younger years who may be in a standard school suit.

Swimming

Sherborne School maintains a year‑round swimming program for boys. The school fields teams in regular inter‑school galas against other independent schools in the South and West of England, including Marlborough College and Eton College.

School culture

School magazine

The Shirburnian is the official School magazine, first published in March 1859. It was devised as 'an outlet for its [the school's] wit, and also an easy means of printing all its News, both as regards those of us who are here and those who have left.' The initial run was short-lived, but it was resurrected in May 1864 and has been published continually – almost every term since that year, becoming an annual publication from 1997.

In popular culture

Sherborne School's buildings and grounds have been used in several films including:

The Guinea Pig (1948)
The Browning Version (1951)
Goodbye Mr Chips (1969)
A Murder of Quality (1991)
The Browning Version (1994)
The Imitation Game (2014)
Wolf Hall (BBC TV Series 2015)
Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)

Historical figures

Headmasters

Headmasters of Sherborne from 1437 to the present time.

1437– Thomas Copeland
1537–1544 Richard Percy
1549– William Gybson
1554– Thomas Coke
1560–1561 Francis Myddelton
1562–1563 Thomas Parvys
1564–1565 William Wolverton
1565 John Delabere
1566–1573 John Hancock
1573–1581 Thomas Seward
1581–1601 William Wood
1601–1603 John Geare
1603–1639 George Grove
1639–1641 Richard Newman
1641–1653 Robert Balch
1654–1663 William Birstall
1663–1670 Joseph Allen
1670–1683 Joseph Goodenough MB
1683–1694 Thomas Curgenven
1694–1695 Thomas Creech.
1695–1720 George Gerrard
1720–1733 Benjamin Wilding
1733–1743 John Gaylard
1743–1751 Thomas Paget
1751–1766 Joseph Hill
1766–1790 Nathaniel Bristed
1790–1823 John Cutler
1823–1845 Ralph Lyon
1845–1849 Charles Penrose
1850–1877 Hugo Daniel Harper
1877–1892 Edward Mallet Young
1892–1909 Frederick Brooke Westcott
1909 Charles Henry Thursfield Wood
1909 Frederick Brooke Westcott (acting headmaster)
1909–1927 Charles Nowell Smith
1928–1933 Charles Lovell Fletcher Boughey
1933–1934 William James Bensly (acting headmaster)
1934–1950 Alexander Wallace
1949 Geoffrey O'Hanlon (acting headmaster)
1950–1970 Robert William Powell
1970–1974 David Emms
1974 Peter Thomas Currie (acting headmaster)
1974–1988 Robin Donnelly Macnaghten
1988–2000 Peter Herbert Lapping
2000–2010 Simon Flowerdew Eliot
2010–2014 Christopher Davis
2014–2015 Ralph Barlow (acting headmaster)
2016–2025 Dominic Luckett
2025 Matthew Jamieson (acting headmaster)
2025–Present Simon Heard

Ushers

The usher, or lower master, was appointed by the governors of Sherborne independent of the headmaster. The qualifications required were similar to those for a headmaster, although he was usually a younger man who might reasonably expect to obtain a headmastership elsewhere in time. He was required to have attained at least a BA from Oxford or Cambridge, and he may have been in Holy Orders. The office was abolished in 1871, although the title was later briefly revived to denote the senior deputy head.

1560 Henry Bagwell
1561 John Martin
1563 Thomas Penye
1565 George Holman
1569 Nicholas Buckler
1570 Hammet Hyde
1572 Walter Bloboll
1573 John Elford
1574–1581 no name given
1581 [first name not given] Wornell
1581 Philip Morris
1584 Lawrence Fuller
1589 John Rooke
1595 William More
1605 George Gardiner
1611 George Harrison
1625 Randell Calcott
1629 Richard Camplin
1629 John Jacob
1635 John Mitchell
1638 [first name not given] Proctor
1638 John Fyler
1647 Thomas Martin
1664 Jonathan Grey
1667 John Walker
1667 William Plowman
1675 Peter Blanchard
1682 Abraham Forrester
1695 Robert Forrester
1695 John Butt
1718 Edward Cosins
1723 John Gaylard
1728 James Martin
1737 James Thomas
1760 William Sharpe
1766 John Bristed
1779 Robert Pargiter
1780 William Glasspoole
1800 James Knight Moore
1801 William Hoblyn Lake
1804 Henry Cutler
1805 David Williams
1813 Thomas James
1860–1871 Arthur Mapletoft Curteis
2016–17 Ralph Barlow Lance Percival, lead singer of rock band Coldplay Chris Martin

Henry James Raby. VC won in the Crimean War, when he was a lieutenant in the Naval Brigade. Raby was the first man to actually receive the medal, with Queen Victoria pinning it onto him in the first investiture.
Sir Arthur George Hammond VC won in the Second Afghan War, when he was a captain in the Bengal Staff Corps, Indian Army
Charles Edward Hudson VC won in the First World War, when he was a temporary lieutenant colonel in the Sherwood Foresters
Edward Bamford VC won in the First World War, when he was a captain in the Royal Marine Light Infantry
John Hollington Grayburn, VC granted posthumously and he was gazetted captain; won in the Second World War, as a lieutenant in the Parachute Regiment

Notable members of staff include Louis Napoleon Parker, composer of the school song.

References

External links

Sherborne School
Old Shirburnian Society website
Profile on the Independent Schools Council website
Sherborne School Cricket Ground at CricketArchive
Sherborne School Archives
Qatar branch website