Brambletye School

51°6′34.96″N 0°1′3.65″E

Brambletye School
Location
East Grinstead , West Sussex , RH19 3PD England
Information
Type	Preparatory day and boarding
Religious affiliation(s)	Church of England
Established	1919
Department for Education URN	126150 Tables
Headmaster	Will Brooks
Gender	Coeducational
Age	2 to 13
Enrolment	c290
Houses	Nelson, Wellington, Drake, Malborough
Colour(s)	Pink, black and grey
Former pupils	Old Brambletyeans
Website	http://www.brambletye.co.uk/

The coat of arms of the school

Brambletye School is a coeducational day and boarding preparatory school in East Grinstead, West Sussex. It was founded as a small boys' boarding school in Kent between the world wars. The school moved to West Sussex and has since become coeducational.

Brambletye vs Amstersdam (AH & BC) on tour, 2016

History

Brambletye was founded at Sidcup Place, Kent in 1919.^[1] It moved to its present location in the Sussex countryside on the southern outskirts of East Grinstead in 1933. The main school building, which is in its own wooded estate of 140 acres, overlooks the Ashdown Forest and Weir Wood Reservoir. Brambletye was built in 1896 by Donald Larnach, former director of the Bank of New South Wales, as his country retreat.^[2] The school became a charitable trust in 1969^[3] with a board of governors. In September 1986, the first girl was admitted and the school is now completely coeducational.

Recent building developments have included a seven-classroom block,^[4] a purpose-built arts centre including a 270-seat theatre, a sports hall, a pre-prep building and the redevelopment of the science laboratories. The Blencowe Centre won the Downland Prize for Architecture, Education, (joint winner) in 2010.^[5]

The Brambletye School Trust, a registered charity,^[3] created legal precedent in the UK with a value-added tax ruling.^[6]

1st Team Cricket on the Top Field

Notable alumni

• Nigel Broackes, founder of Trafalgar House^[7]
• Benedict Cumberbatch, actor^[8]
• Jeremy Moore, commander of the British land forces during the Falklands War in 1982.^[9]
• Nigel Morritt Wace, a leading authority on the plant life of the four Tristan da Cunha Islands^[10]
• Sgt David Kennedy Raikes, WW2 pilot and war poet^[11]
• Sir Christopher Nugee, British Court of Appeal Judge
• Lt General Richard Nugee, Climate Change Lead for the Ministry of Defence

The School sits in site of 140 acres of Sussex countryside overlooking the Ashdown Forest

References

1. "School History". Retrieved 9 December 2010.^{[non-primary source needed]}
2. Walsh, G. P. Larnach, Donald (1817–1896). Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
3. "Brambletye School, registered charity no. 307003". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
4. "Brambletye School, new classrooms, Michael McKechnie". thisissussex.co.uk. 5 November 2009. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2012. Past pupils chipped in to provide the next generation with new classrooms at Brambletye School. A block of seven new classrooms was opened this summer with the help of money raised from old boys and girls and current parents.
5. Downland. "Downland Prize 2010". RIBA. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
6. "House of Lords – Principal and Fellows of Newnham College in the University of Cambridge (Respondents) v Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (Appellants)". House of Lords. pp. section 26. Retrieved 19 May 2012. The Commissioners relied upon an earlier decision of the Tribunal in Brambletye School Trust Ltd v Commissioners of Customs and Excise (2002) VAT Decision 17688. This concerned a somewhat similar scheme used in connection with the construction of a new sports hall for a preparatory school. The Tribunal found that the school was in occupation of the hall because whenever the children used the hall, they were under the supervision of teachers employed by the school. It was the teachers who exercised control over the premises.
7. Moss, Michael S. "Nigel Broackes". Oxford Dictional of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 14 March 2013. Nigel was sent at first to Brambletye School in Sussex and then to Stowe School.
8. "Brambletye School – Senior Verse Speaking Competition". Brambletye School. 26 November 2009. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2013. Mr Fowler-Watt reminded us that many professional actors first 'cut their teeth' on the Brambletye stage, including Benedict Cumberbatch and alternative comedian Will Adams Dale.^{[non-primary source needed]}
9. Shirley, John (18 September 2007). "Obituary: Major General Sir Jeremy Moore – UK news – The Guardian". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2012. Moore was born the son of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Percival Moore, MC, and his wife Alice (née Bibby). He was educated at Brambletye school, East Grinstead, and Cheltenham college, and joined the Royal Marines in 1947, straight from school.
10. "Wace, Nigel Morritt – biography". Australian National Herbarium. Retrieved 19 May 2012. He was the only son of Sir Blyth Wace, Commissioner and Secretary to the Government of the Punjab. The family claims descent from Wace, the 12th-century Jerseyman andchronicler of the House of Normandy. Young Nigel attended Brambletye School in Sussex before going to Sheikh Bagh preparatory school in Kashmir, where a strong emphasis on outdoor activities left him, he said, with "a continuing delight and inquisitive interest indifferent sorts of landscape and people".
11. "WWII bomber poet David Raikes is finally laid to rest". BBC News. Retrieved 25 February 2016.

External links

• School Website
• Profile on the ISC website
• Profile on the Good Schools Guide
• Profile on Tatler Schools Guide 2015
• Ofsted Boarding Inspection Reports