Cranleigh School Archives

This account will no longer function as we move away from the toxicity of Twitter. All future posts can now be found on Instagram instagram.com/cranleighschoo…

Cranleigh School in the autumn of 1866, less than a year after the School opened #cranleigh

Happy 60th birthday to North which opened as the new 1 North home on September 21st 1965. It was located on the site of the old school rubbish dump! The building has undergone several extensions over the years which have softened the original harsh lines

A postcard dating from 1909

The rebuilding of the old junior and middle school classrooms in 1928-29 when they were being converted into the Williams Library and Reading Room

The bursarial staff in 1910. Although there were even more female staff - almost all maids or nurses - they were not considered worth including in the photo

Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey was chairman of the Cranleigh Council and gifted the science block to the School in 1912 (below), a statement of confidence less than 18 months after the Council had considered closing Cranleigh due to lack of pupils. It is now the new Common Room

Built in 1936 as a tuck shop, the Outdoor Ed centre became a home for the evacuated Carn Brae prep school from 1939 to 1945 (the tuck shop moved to a hut on the North Field never to return). It was converted into an art school in 1955 and is the new home for the archives

The only picture I have been able to find of the Four Elms on Smithwood Common, for over a century the pub frequently used by the boys - convenient and isolated with escape routes aplenty should a teacher decide to visit! It sadly shut in the 1990s and is now private houses.

The 1995 renovation of the East dormitories in the oldest part of the School won several architectural awards

Aerial picture of the School from 2003 showing the much-missed outdoor pool. West (now Rhodes) was a new build with the old works storage opposite and the very left the old squash courts, now part of the VHC

We are sorry to report that former Director of Music Jared Armstrong (MCR 1954-1967) died earlier this month at the age of 98. He was the last master to be appointed by David Loveday (HM 1931-1954)

The School around 1910 with the newly built Merriman Block on the right. The large path led to House, the forerunner of @CranleighPrep, and the sloping South Field was still used for football

The School from Horseshoe Lane around 1875. The original Fives courts are at the end of the Chapel. These were moved when the Merriman Block was built in 1906

The Headmaster's House as it was in about 1914. This is now the East housemaster's residence. The buildings to the left of the picture were demolished in 1926-27 to make way for the Connaught Block

Gatley's Farm in 1947, the year it was bought by the School. It remained a farm until 1971 and from 1972 was the Sixth Form Centre until it became part of @LovedayHouse in 1999

@CranOutdoorEd It's on the move again this summer ...

@CS1865 😥 ….and all change again I gather!

The Common Room in 1980. Erected as a "temporary" solution to the school's need for more space in 1919, it was the Common Room until 1985 when it became the buttery and finally Gatley's tuck shop. It was demolished one year shy of its centenary

Loveday being built during the winter of 1979-80. It opened at the start of the Michaelmas Term 1980

An advertising booklet for Cranleigh from the turn of the century which labels it, somewhat adventurously, as "Switzerland in Surrey"