Sherborne School

Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA · EN · 04/10/2026

Sherborne School, also known as "Sherborne Boys", is a boarding school with day places for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in AD 705 by St Aldhelm and, following the dissolution of the monasteries, re-founded in 1550 by Edward VI, making it one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom. Sherborne is one of the twelve founding member public schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in 1869 and is a member of the Eton Group and Boarding Schools Association.

Sherborne educates about 540 boys, aged 13 to 18, and three quarters of its 2021 A level results were A or A* grades. Many of the school buildings are on the National Heritage List for England, including seven listed as grade I, four listed as grade II*, and 19 listed as grade II; the Courts' south side is a scheduled monument.

The school also has a branch located in Doha, Qatar which was built following the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani's time at the school.

History

705–1539

Sherborne was founded as a cathedral school when, in 705 AD, King Ine of Wessex instructed Aldhelm, a churchman and distinguished scholar, to found a cathedral and college of clergy at Sherborne to relieve pressure from the growing see of Winchester. It is one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom.

Anglo-Saxon masonry survives in the Beckett Room, below the school library, a reminder that Sherborne continues to occupy part of the Saxon Cathedral to which it owes its foundation. Alfred the Great, King of the Anglo-Saxons, is said to have been an early pupil of the school, a tradition supported by the seat of West Saxon government having moved to Sherborne in 860 (after Winchester was sacked by the Danes) when Alfred was about 11 years old. That Alfred's son, later Bishop of Sherborne, was also educated at a cathedral school (in Winchester following its recovery by Wessex) is regarded as additional presumptive evidence in support of the claim. Aldhelm was the first Bishop of Sherborne, and the school remained under the direction of Sherborne's bishops until 1122, when its supervision passed to the abbot of the Benedictine monastery which had been established at Sherborne by Wulfsige III in 998. The school continued under monastic direction until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1539.

The school continues to occupy the site of the former monastery; the school chapel (12th century, modified in the 15th, 19th, and 20th centuries), library (13th century, 15th-century roof and windows), and the Abbot's House (c. 1480), occupied by the headmaster and the senior staff, are all former monastic buildings. The outlines of the monastic cloister, and curious first-floor Abbot's Chapel, are visible on the walls beyond the Abbot's House.

1539–1550

While the dissolution of the Benedictine Monastery of Sherborne in 1539 had an impact on administration and finances, Sherborne School remained in continuous operation, as evidenced by extant documents including the abbey churchwardens' accounts for 1542, which record a rent received from the school, and conclusively from a note on the certificate for Dorset under the Chantries Act, dated 14 January 1548, which records the school at Sherborne as continuatur quousque [long continued].

1550–present

On 29 March 1550 a formal instruction was issued by Edward VI to re-found Sherborne School – the first of his whole foundation – together with a good endowment of lands that the school might ever endure. A beautifully engrossed royal charter was sealed on 13 May 1550, under which the school was to have a headmaster and usher for the education of boys, and a board of twenty governors under a warden. A further note of continuity was struck when the last headmaster of Sherborne under the old foundation, William Gibson, was appointed as the first headmaster under the new foundation.

When Edward VI re-founded Sherborne, he granted the school an endowment of valuable lands which belonged to abolished chantries in the churches of Martock, Gillingham, Lytchett Matravers, Ilminster and the Free Chapel of Thornton in the parish of Marnhull. The lands with which the chantries were endowed are predominantly in Dorset, specifically in the manors of:

On 24 October 1851 Edward Digby, 2nd Earl Digby, owner of nearby Sherborne Castle, gave to the governors of the school a plot of land, measuring just under 1+1/2 acre, including the remaining old monastic buildings, though these had been converted for use as a silk mill c1740. This more than doubled the size of the school site and contributed hugely to the school's development thereafter. The old monastic buildings were restored and converted into a chapel, dormitories, big schoolroom, and classrooms in 1853, and over time the quadrangle, as can be seen today, was gradually formed.

In 1873, the governors bought a further 8 acre or so from Lord Digby's trustees, allowing the creation of additional facilities and further prospects for the school. The old Abbey Silk Mill (not to be confused with the silk mill in the old monastic buildings) was converted into a workshop, concert room, museum, armoury, and laboratories, and a swimming bath was dug nearby, followed by the building of the fives courts the following year. The sanatorium in was completed in 1887, and the next big construction project was the Carrington Building in 1910, incorporating and replacing (in part) the old Abbey Silk Mill, to be used as new laboratories and classrooms. A new workshop was completed ten years later, forming what is now the Devitt Court. Over the years many more construction projects were completed, including the sports centre in 1974, the largest most recently being the Music School in 2010.

On 1 June 1950 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Sherborne School and took part in the celebrations marking the four hundredth anniversary of the granting of Sherborne's royal charter.

Established in 1977, Sherborne International is an independent co-educational boarding school, owned and governed by Sherborne School, for those from non-British educational backgrounds who wish to improve their English language skills before moving on to study at boarding schools elsewhere in the United Kingdom. It is located in Sherborne, occupying its own campus, Newell Grange, while sharing some facilities with Sherborne School. In 2009 Sherborne founded Sherborne Qatar Prep School in Doha, Qatar, followed by Sherborne Qatar Senior School in 2012.

In 2005, 50 of the country's leading independent schools, including Sherborne, were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, which had allowed them to drive up tuition fees. Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000. All schools involved in the scandal agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling £3 million into a trust. The trust was designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared. However, Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, and were following a long-established procedure in sharing information with each other, and were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."

Sherborne School merged with Sherborne Prep School in April 2021. Sherborne Prep School is a co-educational independent preparatory school for boys and girls aged 3–13 years, affiliated to the Independent Association of Prep School (IAPS). Sherborne has a partnership with the neighbouring Sherborne Girls school. While both are single-sex boarding schools, a programme of shared academic, co-curricular and social activities enables Sherborne boys and girls to mix and work together.

Former boarding houses

From 1899 to 1902, Ramsam House, renamed as Wingfield House, was the first home of Sherborne Girls' School before moving to their current site. Abbey Cottage, now the bursary, was the first location of Sherborne Preparatory School, though it was used to board a few Sherborne School boy as well. It relocated to Westbury House, now Wessex House, in 1872, and finally to its current site in 1885, when the Preparatory School became independent.

Westbury House, formerly the Bell Inn, was used solely for Sherborne School boys from 1861 to 1868, it was then used again to house Sherborne Preparatory School, as well as the boarders from Abbey Cottage, 1872–85. It is possible that the Sherborne School boys from Westbury House were then relocated again to Mapperty House, though this is only speculative as the dates match up – it could merely be a coincidence. 9&11 Cheap Street (there doesn't seem to have been a name for this building at the time) was used to board a number of boys between 1864 and 1868. Curiously, the housemaster did not live within the building, but some 200 yards away at Monk's Barn. This is "an illuminating revelation of the accepted conditions in Victorian days".

In 1999, Westcott House was taken over by Sherborne International due to falling numbers. When Sherborne International closed in 2019, Westcott House came back into the possession of Sherborne School. It was planned to reopen as the in September 2021, but this was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wallace House (formerly Elmdene) was originally used as a 'waiting house', but in 1977 it became a full house and was renamed Wallace House after headmaster Alexander Ross Wallace. In March 2026 it was announced Wallace House would be closing at the end of the academic year due to the increased operating costs caused by the imposition of 20% VAT on independent schools.

Overview

Boarding school

In the English public school tradition, Sherborne remained a full boarding school with boys living seven days a week in one of eight boarding houses until September 2026, with the introduction of day places. Sherborne was one of four such remaining single-sex boys' boarding independent senior schools in the United Kingdom (the remaining others being Eton, Harrow and Radley).

School terms

There are three academic terms in the Sherborne year,

The Michaelmas Term, from early September to mid December. New boys are admitted at the start of the Michaelmas Term.

The Lent Term, from mid-January to late March.

The Trinity Term, from late April to late June.

Houses

Sherborne is a full boarding school for boys with boarding houses operating on the house system. In addition to a house master, each house has a matron, assistant matron, senior tutor and one or more resident tutors. Each house has around 70 boys from across all year groups.

There are seven boarding houses:

Abbey House has been in continuous use since 1868, but it was also used from 1835 to 1849.

In 1999, The Green moved from the Old Green (formerly the Angel Inn) to its current site at Greenhill House (formerly the site of Sherborne International, until 1991). The Old Green was then converted into housing.

Sherborne School houses are separated into in and out houses, with in houses situated near to the school, and out houses spread out around the town. In: a, b, c, f. Out: d, g, m.

School features

Chapel and library

The school chapel was originally the monastic hall (built in the early 15th century over the 12th century undercroft) used by the Abbot of Sherborne Abbey. It was in use as a silk mill from c. 1740 and was acquired by the school in 1851 from Lord Digby. It was restored and extended, and in 1855, consecrated as a chapel, dedicated to St John the Evangelist. It has been extended several times: eastwards in 1853; westwards in 1865; northwards, to create the north aisle, in 1878 and; eastwards in 1881 (into the headmaster's building); westwards and northwards in 1922 to extend the nave, and create the antechapel which has the names engraved of those who died in World War I and World War II. The Side Chapel, created by knocking through into the School House Studies (now the headmaster's building) in 1881, was dedicated to St Andrew in 1988 and has its own altar.

The library was the "Abbot's Guesten Hall" (13th century, modified 15th century) and would have looked over the Garth and conduit before the latter was moved to the town's market place in 1553. The building was a silk mill from c. 1740 and later still, perhaps, a brewery. It was acquired by the school in 1851 and restored in 1853. The Upper Library was used as the main school assembly room up until 1879 (when the Big Schoolroom was built) and has been used as the main school library since. The Lower Library was the cellarer's store room and outer parlour. Later it was used as three classrooms, then the headmaster's office, but since 1926 it has been used as the Lower Library. In 1981 the library expanded into the 12th century undercroft below the chapel. From 1670 to 1861, the school library was situated in the current School House Oak Room (built 1607), before being moved to its current location.

Source and attribution

Adapted from “Sherborne School” by English Wikipedia contributors. Main paragraphs and sections are retained; tables, reference markers and technical markup are omitted. This is an encyclopedic adaptation, not a personal review. Original revision and contributor history ↗. Text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗. Check current visitor access, tickets and transport with the relevant operator.