Two Hundred Years of Excellence 1808 - 2008


Fonthill History

We are very proud of our distinguished history and in 2008 we celebrated our bicentenary.

The school was owned by the same family for five generations. Fonthill Lodge School is a scion of Fonthill School the foundation of which came about when the Reverend George Radcliffe began preparing boys for Public School before Preparatory Schools became widely available. Coaching in the classics by the local clergy was quite normal in 1808 and one such establishment named, as they often were, after their teacher, Radcliffe’s, was formed at St Edmund’s in Salisbury .

This coaching establishment became a fully recognised school in 1820 and when George Radcliffe’s son, William Coxe Radcliffe was preferred from being Curate at St Edmunds to the living of Fonthill Gifford, boarding pupils arrived at the enlarged rectory and the school became known as Fonthill. Many pupils successfully entered the great schools of Eton, Winchester and Marlborough including two of William’s sons Walter and Ashton.

William died in 1885 and of course the rectory had to be vacated, and so it was that Walter and Ashton moved the school to a large house near East Grinstead which became known as Fonthill and which is now called Rockwood Park .

The house was extended in both directions and Walter was Head until he retired in 1909 when Ashton, nine years his junior, carried on until 1922. Mary Radcliffe, Ashton’s daughter, married in 1918 the Reverend Walpole Sealy who was an Old Fonthillian and Chaplain of the School. They ran the school for 41 years. It was their daughter Elizabeth Shallis, nee Sealy, the great great granddaughter of the founder George who so generously set up the Fonthill School Trust in 1974.

Sadly the big school closed in 1984 but the Lodge, originally for kindergarten children up to age seven, came into its own and has developed into a thriving co-educational school for children from 2-11 years. For 200 years Radcliffe’s school has been cared for by the same family and it is only very recently, on the death of Mrs Shallis that the line has been broken. However, the family’s legacy is everywhere apparent and they leave it in good heart and fully prepared to face the challenges of educating children for the next two hundred years.



The School Today

Three modern extensions have been completed to provide large, fully equipped classrooms for the Nursery, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils. The beautiful, secure grounds enable the pupils to enjoy sport, appreciate the natural world and extend their imaginative play. Fonthill Lodge is accredited by the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS) and therefore benefits from the up-to-date information, in-service training and support this organisation provides.

In 2001 the school was the first Independent School in Sussex to be awarded the Investor in People status. It demonstrates that the whole staff work together to achieve the aims of the school. We are also a Green Flag Eco School and the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are firmly embedded in our daily lives. Having received two Royal Society Partnership awards for science and a Rolls Royce award for science teaching, Fonthill pupils are aware of the importance of this subject in the world beyond the school gates.