Clare House and Northdown Hill Schools Page

Norfolk House Downham Market  Norfolk United Kingdom

2nd August 2000

As a former pupil of Clare House Preparatory School from 1962 to 1965, the following information I discovered recently has been intriguing me.

There is a reference in the Cambridge University Library catalogue to a book written by Charles Robbs, entitled "Northdown Hill and Clare House: The Story of Two Preparatory Schools", published by the Northdown Hill School Society, possibly in Amersham in 1983.

According to the Cambridge University catalogue entry, this seems to be a substantial book with 344 pages and several plans, which unfold to 28" x 19" (71cm x 48cm).

I can not find any other references to Northdown Hill School on the Internet, and only one reference to a former pupil of Clare House Preparatory School, at Beckenham in Kent, so I would be very interested to hear from anybody (former governor, teaching staff, non-teaching staff, pupil, a parent of a pupil, etc.) who has or has had a connection at some time with either Northdown Hill School, Clare House Preparatory School, or both.

I should like to find out more about a connection between the two schools - including whether Clare House School in this context is the one that used to be at Beckenham in Kent. If this is indeed the same school, how can I get a copy of Charles Robbs's book, please?

29th September 2000

Having made enquiries of the London Borough of Bromley, in Kent, I received some information from Simon Finch of the Local Studies Department of the Central Library in Bromley. While researching details about Clare House Preparatory School in Beckenham in Kent, Simon Finch discovered that there was a Clare House School in Margate, in Kent, so he made some enquiries of the library there and established that there was also a Northdown Hill School in Margate. It is highly likely that the book in the Cambridge University Library catalogue refers to these two schools, and that the Clare House School mentioned in this book is therefore not the one in Beckenham. My thanks go to Simon Finch and his colleagues in the Local Studies Department of the Central Library, Bromley, in Kent for sending me as much information as there is available in the archives there about the Clare House schools in Beckenham, Kent, and for making further enquiries about Margate on my behalf.

10th October 2000

Prompted by Simon Finch's information, I had discovered a listing of schools [Note 1] in the Thanet area of Kent from Kelly's 1891 Directory of Kent, prepared by Barry J White, which mentions the existence of a Clare House School in Northdown Road in Cliftonville, Margate in Kent - but not a Northdown Hill School. It is therefore highly unlikely that there was any firm connection between Clare House Preparatory School in Beckenham and Northdown Hill School in Margate. Although I have achieved the original objective of my research, I have decided to gather as much information as I can about the history of Clare House Preparatory School in Beckenham, in Kent.

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