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Mill Hill School

{{short description|Public school in Mill Hill, London}}

{{Distinguish|Mill Hill County High School|Mill Hill School, Derbyshire}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}

{{Use British English|date=June 2014}}

{{Infobox school

| name = Mill Hill School

| logo = Mill Hill School Coat of Arms (2017).png

| logo_size = 125px

| logo_alt = Mill Hill School Coat of Arms, as redesigned in 2017.

| image = Mill_Hill_School_May_6th_2004(2).jpg

| motto = {{Langx|la|Et virtutem et musas}}

| motto_translation = Instilling values, inspiring minds

| address = The Ridgeway, Mill Hill

| city = London

| county =

| postcode = NW7 1QS

| country = England

| coordinates = {{Coord|51.6190|-0.2305|type:edu_region:GB_dim:100|format=dec|display=inline,title}}

| other_name =

| former_name =

| type = Public school
Private day and boarding school

| religious_affiliation =

| established = {{Start date and age|1807}}

| founders = Committee of Nonconformist merchants and ministers, including John Pye-Smith

| closed =

| local_authority = Barnet London Borough Council

| oversight =

| trust =

| urn = 101367

| ofsted =

| chair = Elliot Lipton

| chair_label = Chair of Governors

| head = David Benson{{cite web |title=Mill Hill School |url=https://www.millhill.org.uk/ |access-date=3 May 2024}}

| head_label = Head

| staff =

| gender = Mixed

| age_range = 13–18

| enrolment = 1,495{{cite web |title=Mill Hill School Foundation |url=https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/101367 |website=Get information about schools |publisher=GOV.UK |access-date=29 December 2018}}

| enrolment_as_of =

| capacity = 1,661

| campus_size = {{Convert|120|acre}}

| campus_type =

| houses = 12

| colours = Blue and red {{Color box|Blue}}{{Color box|Red}}

| accreditation =

| publication =

| newspaper =

| yearbook =

| affiliation = Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference

| alumni = Old Millhillians

| website = {{URL|www.millhill.org.uk}}

| footnotes =

}}

Mill Hill School is a 13–18 co-educational private, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

History

A committee of Nonconformist merchants and ministers, including John Pye-Smith founded the school,[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22138 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1] originally called Mill Hill Grammar School,{{cite web|url=http://mhps.org.uk/collinson/pch-articles_3_419351791.pdf|title=The remaining Peter Collinson trees at Mill Hill|publisher=Mill Hill Preservation Society|first=Trevor |last=Chilton|date=March 2016}} for boys on 25 January 1807. They located it sufficiently distant of London at that time, because of "dangers both physical and moral awaiting youth while passing through the streets of a large, crowded and corrupt city". A boarding house was opened in the residence once occupied by Peter Collinson, with about 20 boys. John Atkinson was the first headmaster and chaplain until 1810.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}{{efn|John Atkinson was later head of Wymondley College.{{cite web|title=Wymondley Academy (1799–1833)|url=https://dissacad.english.qmul.ac.uk/sample1.php?parameter=academyretrieve&alpha=172|work=Dissenting Academies Online|publisher=Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature in English|access-date=2019-02-03}}}}

{{anchor|Ridgeway House (Mill Hill Village)}}

Mill Hill School occupies a {{convert|120|acre|adj=on}} site, part of which formed the gardens of Ridgeway House, the house of the botanist Peter Collinson. He was one of the most important importers of rare and exotic plants into English gardens. Many of the species that he introduced to Mill Hill in the 18th century continue to grow today in the grounds of the School.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} In 1746 Collinson planted Britain's first hydrangea on the grounds, now located adjacent to School House.

The estate was purchased by the botanist Richard Salisbury in 1802, Ridgeway House became the setting for a long-running scientific dispute between the new owner and his guest, James Edward Smith.{{cite DNB|wstitle =Salisbury, Richard Anthony|first=George Simonds|last=Boulger|author-link=George Simonds Boulger|volume=50|quote=sources: Journal of Botany, 1886.}} The flora of Mill Hill was supplemented by the work of the amateur botanist Richard William Bowry Buckland (died 1947), governor of the foundation from 1878 to 1889, who cultivated a garden in the south-west of the school's grounds for the enjoyment of future generations. He wrote in his diary:

{{poemquote|

In years bygone I pray to thee,

This willow here, my legacy

As I have sat, pray sit thee.

In shaded splendour

Millhillians; rest hither.|author=(signed Richard Buckland)|source=}}

In 1939, Mill Hill School's premises became a hospital. The school was evacuated to St. Bees School in Cumberland for the duration of the Second World War. Collinson House, a school for girls, was named for it. A St Bees Association was founded in commemoration of this period of evacuation in the school's history by Michael Berry and David Smith.{{cite news|url=http://www.stbees.org.uk/history/hist_mill_hill.htm|title=Evacuation of Mill Hill School to St Bees|publisher=The St Bees Association|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050525024938/http://www.stbees.org.uk/history/hist_mill_hill.htm|archive-date=25 May 2005|df=dmy-all}}

Mill Hill first admitted sixth form girls in 1975 and became fully co-educational in 1997. The BBC news website usually uses a picture taken at Mill Hill School for articles about boarding schools.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6694215.stm|work=BBC News|title=Private sector 'to loan teachers'|date=26 May 2007}}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7987938.stm|work=BBC News|first=Alison|last=Smith|title=Private schools 'feel downturn|date=3 January 2015}}

In 2005 the school was one of 50 of the country's leading independent schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by The Times. Together they had driven up fees for thousands of parents.{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article588559.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310233300/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article588559.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 March 2007|work=The Times|location=London, UK|title=Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees|first=Tony|last=Halpin|date=10 November 2005|access-date=12 May 2010}} Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000, and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust. It is to benefit persons who were students at the schools during the cartel period.[http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2006/182-06 The Office of Fair Trading: OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement] {{webarchive|url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140402142426/http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2006/182-06 |date=2 April 2014 }}, oft.gov.uk; accessed 3 January 2014.

In March 2007, Mill Hill celebrated its bicentenary. To mark the occasion, the school was granted a new coat of arms by Robert Noel, Her Majesty's Lancaster Herald.[https://www.millhill.org.uk/senior/our-school/history-of-the-school/coat-of-arms/ "The Coat of Arms of Mill Hill School"], millhill.org.uk; accessed 13 December 2020.

In 2018, the school experienced controversy when it was featured in the music video of London rapper Stefflon Don. In it, she was shown nude in the changing room showers, dancing on tables in classrooms, and smoking marijuana in the dormitories.{{Cite web|url=https://news.sky.com/story/mill-hill-school-seeks-legal-action-over-rapper-stefflon-dons-explicit-music-video-11479413|title=Mill Hill school seeks legal action over rapper Stefflon Don's explicit music video}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-45283275|title = Stefflon Don music video forces Mill Hill School apology|work = BBC News|date = 23 August 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/shortcuts/2018/aug/22/stefflon-don-video-teaches-private-school-a-lesson|title=Stefflon Don – how the rapper's new video taught a private school a lesson|website=TheGuardian.com|date=22 August 2018}}

Houses

Mill Hill School is divided into houses. These are:

=Boarding houses=

  • Burton Bank – Named to commemorate its original position on Burton Hole Lane
  • Collinson – Named after Peter Collinson, who once owned what is now the estate
  • Macgregor – Named after Mary Macgregor, the founder and first head of The Mount, Mill Hill International
  • Ridgeway – Peter Collinson's original house on the site

Winterstoke House was converted into Grimsdell Mill Hill Pre-Preparatory School, in 1995.

=Day houses=

  • Atkinson – Named after the first headmaster, John Atkinson
  • Cedars – Named in honour of the cedars planted by Peter Collinson
  • McClure – Named after Sir John McClure, headmaster at the turn of the 20th century
  • Murray – Named in honour of Sir James Murray, teacher and longtime editor of the Oxford English Dictionary; who began compiling his dictionary while a master at Mill Hill
  • Priestley – Named after headmaster Thomas Priestley
  • School House – Named after Tite's famous building constructed in the 1820s
  • Weymouth – Named after headmaster Richard Weymouth
  • Winfield – Named after headmaster William Winfield

Heads

In January 2016, Frances King became the school's first female Head.{{cite web|last1=King|first1=Frances|title=Mrs Frances King|url=http://www.millhill.org.uk/popups/FrancesKing.html|publisher=Mill Hill School|access-date=22 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319045418/http://www.millhill.org.uk/popups/FrancesKing.html|archive-date=19 March 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}

The following people have served as Head:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Name || Tenure

|-

| John Atkinson || 1807–1810

|-

| Maurice Phillips || 1811–1818

|-

| John Humphreys || 1819–1825

|-

| James Corrie || 1825–1827

|-

| George Samuel Evans || 1828{{ref|reference_name_A|1}}

|-

| Robert Cullen || 1829–1831

|-

| H. L. Berry || 1831–1834

|-

| Thomas Priestley || 1834–1852

|-

| Philip Smith || 1852–1860

|-

| William Flavel || 1860–1863

|-

| Philip Chapman Barker || 1863–1864

|-

| George Donald Bartlet || 1864–1868

|-

| Richard Francis Weymouth || 1869–1886

|-

| Charles Arthur Vince || 1886–1891

|-

| John David McClure (later Sir) || 1891–1922

|-

| Maurice Leonard Jacks || 1922–1937

|-

| Thomas Kingston Derry || 1938–1940

|-

| Arthur Rooker Roberts || 1940–1943

|-

| Maurice Leonard Jacks || 1943–1944

|-

| John Seldon Whale || 1944–1951

|-

| Roy Moore || 1951–1967

|-

| Michael Hart || 1967–1974

|-

| Alan Fraser Elliot || 1974–1978

|-

| William Allan Phimester || 1978–1979

|-

| Alastair Carew Graham || 1979–1992

|-

| Euan Archibald MacFarlane MacAlpine || 1992–1995

|-

| William Winfield || 1995–2007

|-

| Dominic Luckett || 2007–2015

|-

| Frances King || 2016–2018

|-

| Jane Sanchez || 2018–2023

|-

| David Benson || 2023–

|}

{{note|reference_name_A|1}}Evans served as head from January 1828 to June 1828.

Architecture

The chapel was opened in 1896. Designed by Basil Champneys, it is a basilica in form. The School House was designed by Sir William Tite, famous for his work on the London Royal Exchange, School House was erected in 1825 and is described as being in the Greco-Roman style. Other buildings within the site are of both traditional and modern styling. The cricket house was used as a set in the tenth episode of Inspector Morse.{{cn|date=January 2024}} In honour of Patrick Troughton the Mill Hill theatre was dedicated to the actor and named the Patrick Troughton Theatre in 2007.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

The Mill Hill Education Group

The school is run by the Mill Hill School Foundation (now known as The Mill Hill Education Group),{{cite web |title=Mill Hill School Education Group |url=https://millhilleducationgroup.com/}} a registered charity under English law.{{EW charity|1064758|THE MILL HILL SCHOOL FOUNDATION}} The Education Group offers education to boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in seven schools.{{cite web |title=The Mill Hill School Foundation Announces More School Mergers |date=8 February 2022 |url=https://www.millhill.org.uk/2022/02/the-mill-hill-school-foundation-announces-more-school-mergers/ |access-date=10 March 2022}} The Mill Hill Education Group's other schools are:

  • Belmont – a day school for pupils aged 7 to 13. Head: Leon Roberts
  • Grimsdell – a pre-preparatory day school for pupils aged 3 to 7.{{cite news |last1=Adonis |first1=Andrew |last2=Bright |first2=Martin |title=A through train for the monied |url=https://www.theguardian.com/observer/education/story/0,,846716,00.html |access-date=21 January 2022 |work=The Observer |date=15 February 1998}} Head: Kate Simon
  • The Mount, Mill Hill International – a mixed day and boarding school for international pupils aged 11 to 16. Head: Sarah Bellotti.
  • Cobham Hall – an independent day and boarding school for girls aged 11 to 18. Head: Wendy Barrett.{{cite web |title=Cobham School |url=https://alumni.millhill.org.uk/uploads/default/files/7815_603521f561c2e.pdf |access-date=23 February 2021}}
  • Lyonsdown – an independent preparatory school for girls aged 3 to 11. Head: Rittu Hall.
  • Keble Prep – an independent preparatory school for boys and girls aged 4 to 13. Head: Perran Gill.
  • St Joseph's In The Park – an independent preparatory school for boys and girls aged 2 to 11. Head: Douglas Brown.

Notable alumni

{{See also|Category:People educated at Mill Hill School}}

{{alumni|date=August 2021}}

References

Notes

{{notelist}}

Citations

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • {{cite book|first=Roderick |last=Braithwaite|title='Strikingly Alive': The History of the Mill Hill School Foundation 1807–2007|publisher= Phillimore & Co.|isbn=978-1-86077-330-3|date=2006|location=Chichester}}
  • Brett-James, Norman G. The Book of Remembrance and War Record of Mill Hill School 1914-1918 (1919)
  • Brett-James, Norman G. The Book of Remembrance and War Record of Mill Hill School 1939-1945 (1948)
  • Brett-James, Norman G. The History of Mill Hill School 1807-1923 (revised ed. 1923)

External links

{{Commons category}}

  • {{Official website|https://www.millhill.org.uk/}}
  • [http://www.isc.co.uk/schools/england/london-area/mill-hill/mill-hill-school Profile] on ISC website
  • [http://www.omclub.co.uk/ Old Millhillians Club]
  • {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140516202139/http://www.millhillatwar.org.uk/ |date=16 May 2014 |title=Mill Hill at War, 1914–1919 }}
  • [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22138 Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust's early history of Mill Hill School]

{{Schools and colleges in Barnet}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1807 establishments in England

Category:Boarding schools in London

Category:Educational institutions established in 1807

Category:Private co-educational schools in London

Category:Private schools in the London Borough of Barnet

Category:Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference

Category:Mill Hill

*