By Paul Swinger, member of the Estates Team and longest serving member of staff
Scarborough College Prep School
In January 1913, Scarborough College opened its own Prep School at 64 Filey Road, under the headship of Lawrence McKnight Armstrong. Mr Armstrong was a brother of Percy Armstrong, who had been Headmaster of Scarborough College since its opening in 1901.
After the bombardment of Scarborough in December 1914, the College and Prep School were evacuated to the Park Hotel in Keswick. Staff and pupils stayed there for one year and returned to Scarborough in January 1916.
The Prep School left Filey Road in September 1916 and moved to a bigger house. Fashoda House was situated on the corner of Seacliff Road and Hollbeck Hill.
In 1920, 64 Filey Road was re-openened as a boys boarding house called College Lodge. Fifteen years later, during the Summer Term, a Pre-Prep department for day boys was opened on the same site.
Facing uncertain times under the gloom of war, school returned in September 1939, only for the Prep School to close again just before the October half-term. The boys all moved into an unused space in the main College. The following year, both the College and the Prep School assembled at their new home at Marske Hall. The boys remained at Marske Hall for the duration of the war, as the College had been taken over by the RAF.
After a period of six years’ away, pupils and staff returned home in September 1946. The Prep School got housed in the College again.
Lisvane Prep School
Lisvane Prep School for Boys was opened by Mr O. Glauert at 17 Fulford Road in 1922. A Mr Garth bought the Prep School in 1929 and moved it to the Sandybed Lane site in 1935. The main building was originally a 17th century Jacobean farmhouse and part of Sandybed Farm (later Sandybed House).
The Prep School had two more owners before Scarborough College purchased Lisvane during the Summer Term of 1951, adding it to Scarborough College ready for the start of the new Academic Year in 1951. The school was re-named Scarborough College Preparatory School but retained the name of Lisvane. A Pre-Prep department was opened at Hartford House, 33 Filey Road, in 1954. This department was to look after boys aged 4.5 to 7 years old.
An important decision at the start of the seventies saw Lisvane admit girls for the very first time in September 1970. The first two girls were admitted as Day pupils and one year later, the first girl boarders arrived. In September 2020, it will be fifty years since Scarborough College admitted its first girl boarders.
July 1995 saw the end of boarding at Lisvane, with the last four boarders leaving at the end of the term. Lisvane School at Sandybed closed its doors on 16 February 2000 and all the pupils moved to the new school, which had been built on the Filey Road site. Pupils and staff started again at their £1.2 home on the Filey Road site. The name Lisvane disappeared altogether in 2007 and got replaced in favour of Scarborough College Junior School.
Bramcote School
Mr Samuel Servington Savery opened Bramcote School in 1893 by buying a house on Filey Road, which he named Bramcote Lodge. Bramcote Lodge was the name of Mr Savery’s home in Oxford. At the time of opening, Mr Savery only had three boys to start the first term.
After merging with Scarborough College in 2012, Bramcote School moved to Scarborough College Junior School. The new school, named Bramcote Junior School was officially opened by three-time Olympian and President of England Hockey Simon Mason on 6 October 2012.
After 2012
A memorial service washeld for Mollie Whiteley and Mike Evans in March 2013. Mollie had been Matron at Lisvane from 1977 to 1995, while Mike had joined Lisvane in 1977 and held roles of Assistant Master, Resident Housemaster and Deputy Head. Mike retired in 1996, one year aftrer Mollie. At the same time, the New Hall, the College’s performing arts theatre, was renamed Lisvane Hall.
Little Owls Nursery, established in 2009, moved to the old nursery site in 2013, which was under the sports hall at the Bramcote Site. Little Owls re-opened in the Scarborough College Prep School in 2017. They were given their own dining area in a room just off the main dining area, which used to be the copying room.
Following the deaths of Mollie Whiteley and Mike Evans, within six months of one another, the OSA presented a memorial bench to the Prep School in October 2018.
