Country Life Article Spring 2018

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A country education Royal Masonic School, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

From the late 19th century, there was a steady exodus of schools from central London. James Bettley explores the artistic treasures of one such: a remarkably lavish girls’ school begun by the Masons in 1930 Photographs by Justin Paget 104 Country Life, February 28, 2018

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or centuries, Hertfordshire has been seen as London’s healthy neighbour; in the words of the topographer Robert Morden, ‘the rich soil and wholesome air, and the excellency of the county, have drawn hither the wealthiest citizens of London’ (1701). Since 1613, it had, moreover, been the principal source of London’s drinking water, thanks to Sir Hugh Myddelton’s New River, which ran from Chadwell Spring, Ware, to Islington. These qualities, combined with its proximity to the capital, made the county a highly suitable location for schools and, as early as 1564, Christ’s Hospital boarded www.countrylife.co.uk

Fig 1 above left: The clock tower at the entrance to the assembly hall is the focus of the whole plan. Fig 2 above right: The entrance to the administration block. The brickwork of the buildings is articulated with stone detailing, mostly executed by Joseph Cribb

younger children in Ware until they were ready to go to the main school in London. In the late 19th century, the exodus of schools from London to Hertfordshire intensified. This was partly a response to the congestion of the capital, but it also resulted from the expansion of these institutions and the demand for larger premises with playing fields. Among the largest such schools to make the move were the Royal Masonic Schools for, respectively, Boys and Girls. The boys’ school, founded in 1798, moved to Bushey in 1902, to magnificent www.countrylife.co.uk

buildings by Gordon, Lowther & Gunton. These closed in 1977 and have been successfully converted to apartments. The girls’ school was founded 10 years earlier than the boys’ by an Italian-born dentist and Freemason, Bartholomew Ruspini, whose patients included the Dowager Princess of Wales. Such was his respectability that he supplied dentifrice in tins stamped with his coat of arms and, in 1789, he was created Chevalier of the Order of the Golden Spur. The declared purpose of the school was for ‘maintaining, clothing and educating

an unlimited number of the Female Children and Orphans of indigent Brethren belonging to the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons’, with the view of ‘training them up in the love and knowledge of Virtue [and] in the habits of Industry’. Particularly where virtue was concerned, the education of girls was clearly seen as a higher priority than that of boys. The school was established under the patronage of the Duchess of Cumberland in a house in Somers Town, north of Euston ➢ Country Life, February 28, 2018 105


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