8 & 9 Norfolk Terrace

William Randall Lee's gentleman's boarding school 

This is the northern end of Norfolk Terrace, a photo probably dating from the late 1850s when the southern end of the Terrace was still under construction.

From around 1856, Mr and Mrs Lee’s ‘preparatory boarding school’ for boys occupied the handsome double fronted property, 8 Norfolk Terrace (see arrow). Earlier in the 1850s, the neighbouring property, number 9, had operated as Miss Montague’s ladies’ school, which continued under a sequence of principals. By 1862, the Lees had expanded their now more grandly named ‘gentleman’s boarding school’ into number 9 as well, the smaller girls’ establishment having moved to number 11.

Between 1867 and 1869, a 10-year-old boarder from Southern Ireland, James Massy Dawson, wrote a series of letters, mainly to his father. Clearly anxious to meet his dad’s expectations, he reported regularly on his progress at school - that he was either top or 2nd in the class order, which is “pretty well to the place you told me to go”.  Pupils gained a maximum of four marks per lesson, eight for Maths on Saturdays and a whopping 24 for Scripture lessons on Sundays.

What is clear from his letters home is that James was happy at this school. The curriculum, he informs us, included a great deal of recreation. He mentions football, dancing, walks and visits to the gymnasium. He does not say which gymnasium but the nearest at that time was  less than ten minutes’ walk away at 54 Western Road on the corner of Brunswick Place (above a fishmonger’s).  

They played Prisoner’s Base – a team game of tag, with participants in the opposing team who are caught being imprisoned. There were numerous variations of the game.

On Saturday November 9th 1867, the whole school enjoyed a firework display, the older boys watching from the house and James’s class from the playground.  

During the summer of that year they had been on a school trip to Scotney Castle in Kent. As the Castle was not opened to the public until 2006, this would have been at the invitation of the Hussey family, the resident owners. Edward Windsor Hussey and his younger brother William were pupils at the school, both of whom feature in this rather fuzzy photograph, as does William Randall Lee, who is (somewhere) in the back row.

James wrote obsessively about his tuck box from home. "And mind you send me 2 or 3 pots of poted [sic] meats,” he demands. On another occasion he hints that “all the boys have fruit” in their tuck boxes. The family’s cook obliges but James is still not satisfied, requesting that she put more paper in the “grub” parcel since her previous consignment of grapes had arrived bruised and squashed. In 1869, aged about 12, he was cheeky enough to request “a ham and a couple of pheasants”!

Around 1886, the school moved out to a large country mansion near Forest Row - Ashdown House. William Randall Lee, the principal of the Norfolk Terrace establishment, died in 1897, at the age of 72, his wife Adelaide, who had been responsible for the pupils’ welfare, having predeceased him aged 48 in 1879.  

Ashdown House remained in the family for many years, becoming increasingly successful well into the 20th century.

However, in due course its reputation started to unravel with allegations of mental, physical and sexual abuse from masters, notably during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1969, the Queen’s nephew, David Armstrong Jones (Viscount Linley at the time), became a pupil.

Two years later, however, his mother Princess Margaret, had reservations and whisked him out.

So far I have found two future prime-ministers who received their early education at this school, one during the early years at Norfolk Terrace. Archibald Primrose, the fifth Earl of Rosebery (1847 – 1929), who managed to achieve all three of his declared ambitions - marrying an heiress, owning a horse that won the Derby and being Prime Minister. A Liberal politician, this latter ambition was short-lived. Reluctantly, he succeeded Gladstone in the top job at a politically inauspicious time. It did not go well and his government fell 15 months later.

Then there was Boris Johnson, whose father sent him to Ashdown House in 1975 to ensure his eligibility for Eton.  Excelling in Latin and Greek, Boris was duly awarded the prized scholarship. 

Although pupil numbers had been low beforehand, it was Covid that caused Ashdown House to finally fail. It closed in 2020. 

Postscript

The 1867 group photo was bequeathed by the Hussey family, who owned Scotney Castle until 1970. Although many of the pupils and masters are named - some merely by surname - the erratic arrangement of the rows and poor quality image make it hard to determine precisely who is where. Any assistance appreciated! See here for the list of names and full image citation

Some sources state that the Lees’ school was launched in 1843 as Connaught House School. A boys’ school of that name was certainly in existence at 15 Sillwood Place, Brighton by 1846 (Kelly’s Post Office Directory),  conducted by Mrs Eleanor Mary Walker. She remained in charge five years later when the 1851 Census names Lee as a resident tutor. According to the 1859 Post Office Directory, the boys’ school was still at 15 Sillwood Place under the leadership of Mrs Walker. So far, though, I have  found no evidence that William Randall Lee owned or was involved in the management of Connaught House.  Please put me right if I’ve missed something.