Westbrook Hay School

Westbrook Hay Prep School is a co-educational independent school which educates children from rising 3 –13 years. The school is primarily a day school but with flexible boarding.The schoolThe school was established by Augustus Orlebar, a former housemaster at Radley College, as a boarding school for boys in Bedford in 1892; it moved to Hinwick House near Wellingborough shortly thereafter and then to Gadebridge House in nearby Hemel Hempstead in 1914. It remained there until it was forced out of its old premises by the Commission for New Towns as part of its development of the new town in 1963. It took on its present name at its present site that year. It is now an independent Prep school which educates boys and girls from rising 3 –13 years. The school is in a rural location on 26 acres of parkland overlooking the Bourne valley, off the A 41 between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire.The houseThe house was built in the 17th century and remained in the ownership of the Ryder family until the Second World War after which it became the headquarters of the Hemel Hempstead New Town Development Corporation. During the 1950s the 650 yard drive became the Westbrook Hay Hill Climb.