Friends' School, Saffron Walden Explained

Friends' School
Other Name:	Walden School (2016–17)
Coordinates:	52.0162°N 0.2423°W
Motto:	Per Ardua Ad Alta
Established:	1702
Closed:	2017
Type:	Defunct Independent
Religious Affiliation:	Quaker
Head Label:	Head
Head:	Anna Chaudhri (Senior school) Sally Meyrick (Prep school)
City:	Saffron Walden
County:	Essex
Country:	England
Postcode:	CB11 3EB
Enrolment:	375
Gender:	Co-educational
Lower Age:	3
Upper Age:	18
Houses:	3: Tuke, Mennell and Lister
Colours:	(Lister) (Tuke) (Mennell)
Free Label 2:	Fate
Free 2:	Closed as no longer sustainable due to falling pupil numbers, etc.^[1]

Friends' School (known as Walden School from 2016–17) was a Quaker private co-educational day and boarding school located in Saffron Walden, Essex,^[2] situated approximately 12 miles south of the city of Cambridge, England. The school taught pupils between the ages of three and eighteen.

The school closed at the end of the 2017 summer term.^[3]

History

Friends' School, Saffron Walden was founded as part of the Quakers' Clerkenwell workhouse in Islington in London in 1703, 50 years after George Fox. The workhouse was for children and the elderly and the school moved out as a separate entity in 1786. It was now nearby in Clerkenwell and now known as the Friends' School. However the new building was damp and ill suited to teaching and learning.^[4]

In 1825 the school began operation in Croydon. There was initially 120 places for students who began at the age of nine. Children did not have to be members of the Quakers but these children were accepted first.^[4] In 1828 the school had a marriage when Elizabeth Hutchinson married Edward Foster Brady. They were both teachers and both former pupils of the school. In 1833 they became joint heads of the school, although Edward was ill and had been consumptive. He died in 1838 and Elizabeth Brady led the school until 1842.

In 1876 the mayor of Saffron Walden offered a new site for the school and in 1879 the school opened in Saffron Walden.^[4]

In September 2016 the school changed its name to Walden School.^[5]

On 11 May 2017 it was announced that Walden School would close at the end of the 2016–17 school year.^[6]

Notable former pupils and associates

• Harriett Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire
• Ruth Barnett, (née Michaelis; Holocaust survivor and educator)
• Edward Bawden, English painter, illustrator, graphic artist and WWII war artist
• Elizabeth Brady, student here and head of the school^[7]
• Carola Dunn, author of romance and detective novels
• Ralph Erskine, Sweden-based architect and planner (pupil from 1925 to 1931)
• Matthew Evans, chairman and former managing director of Faber and Faber Ltd, and member of the House of Lords
• Margery Fish, gardener and writer
• Imogen Heap, singer-songwriter, record producer and audio engineer
• Diana Wynne Jones, novelist, poet and academic (pupil from 1946 to 1952)
• E. V. Lucas, humorist, essayist and playwright
• Tony Newton (Lord Newton of Braintree), politician
• Deborah Norton, actress
• John Peet, journalist and translator of Karl Marx
• John Raven, botanist
• Matthew Robinson, executive producer of Byker Grove and EastEnders and founder of Khmer Mekong Films (pupil from 1958 to 1963)
• Tom Robinson, singer-songwriter and broadcaster (pupil from 1961 to 1967)
• Jeremy Shearmur, philosopher at Australian National University
• Malcolm Shepherd, politician, businessman and member of the House of Lords (pupil from 1929 to 1935)
• Sally Tuffin, fashion designer and ceramicist^[8]
• Emily Young, sculptor
• Daisy Johnson, writer
• Adam Kendon, linguistician, one of the foremost authorities on the topic of gesture (pupil from 1943-1952)

In popular culture

Carola Dunn's book Anthem for Doomed Youth is set at the school.

See also

• List of Friends Schools

Further reading

• The Avenue (school magazine).
• Bolam, W. D. (1952). Unbroken community: The story of the Friends' School, Saffron Walden, 1702–1952.
• Buss, R. (2003). A Community through three centuries.
• Crosfield, J. B. (1902). Saffron Walden School: a sketch of two hundred years.
• Halter, H. (2002). The School on the hill: memories of three hundred years of Friends' School, Saffron Walden, 1702–2002.
• Hitchcock, T. V. (ed.) (1987). Richard Hutton's complaints book: the notebook of the steward of the Quaker workhouse at Clerkenwell 1711–1737.
• OSA Annual reports, at Essex Record Office, Chelmsford.
• Saffron Walden Weekly. Local newspaper founded in 1889. Good coverage of Friends School.
• Woods, J. C. (1979). Friends School: A hundred years at Saffron Walden 1879–1979.

External links

• • Obituary of Lord Malcolm Shepherd

Notes and References

1. News: Steward . Michael . Saffron Walden private school set to close at end of summer term . 6 July 2021 . East Anglian Daily Times . 11 May 2017.
2. Web site: Education | League Tables | Performance results for Friends School . BBC News . 2009-01-15 . 2015-08-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170816113319/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/08/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/881_6012.stm . 2017-08-16 . live .
3. BBC Look East, 26/6/17
4. Web site: Friends School, Clerkenwell, Croydon, Saffron Waldon. 2020-09-27. www.childrenshomes.org.uk.
5. Web site: Chaudhri . Anna . A Step Change For Friends' . 2 October 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161020222345/http://www.waldenschool.co.uk/a-step-change-for-friends-school/ . 20 October 2016 . dead .
6. Web site: Saffron Walden private school set to close at end of summer term. Michael. Steward. 2022-07-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20170511153231/http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/saffron-walden-private-school-set-to-close-at-end-of-summer-term-1-5012754. East Anglian Daily Times . 11 May 2017. 2017-05-11. live.
7. Brady [née Hutchinson], Elizabeth (1803–1874), headmistress]. 2020-09-27. 2004. en. 10.1093/ref:odnb/52731. Hammer. Margaret A. E..
8. Web site: Interview with Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin. V&A. 15 July 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140718113635/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/marion-foale-and-sally-tuffin/. 2014-07-18. live.