St Elphin's School

St Elphins School was a boarding school for the daughters of the clergy of the Church of England. It was originally based in Warrington, Lancashire, England. It moved to Darley Dale, a rural area near Matlock, Derbyshire, in 1904, as the Warrington area had changed from open countryside and become highly industrialised. The school was founded in 1844 but had roots back to 1697.[1] The school abruptly closed in March 2005 following financial problems.

History

The school opened on 15 March 1844 in Warrington, dedicated to Saint Elphin who according to tradition founded the nearby parish church. In 1857 the objectives of the school were: to provide a good education on advantageous terms: (i) to orphan daughters of clergy from the Archdeaconries of Manchester, Liverpool and Chester; (iii) to the daughters of clergy still working in these Archdeaconries; (iii) to the daughters of clergy from any diocese.[1]

The original site in Warrington was in the country. However, by the turn of the 20th century the area had become industrialised, and the move to the countryside in Darley Dale was made. The building occupied had previously been the Darly Dale Hydro, a health spa.[1]

During the period up to 1944, various additional facilities were made to the school and the criteria for pupils were extended to daughters of lay members of the Church of England.

In 2003, the school fell into financial difficulties and went into administration with debts of £3 million. A proposal was put forward to develop part of the site for housing and thus raise income to save the school. This was rejected by the local council, and eventually the school closed in 2005.[2] In December 2010 a website was published about the school and is regularly updated with photographs, information, magazines and news items.

Following closure of the school, the site was acquired in 2006 and developed into a luxury retirement village, the main building being converted into retirement flats.[3]

Following the dramatic closure of the school in March 2005 the owners attempted to sell as many of its assets – both internally and externally – and organised an auction to be held, on site, in April 2005. This included the Invicta Stone which was originally in situ at the top of a turret above the main front door to St Elphin's School (now St Elphin's House) in 1904. It remained in place until the 1960s when it may have been removed, together with the turret, for safety reasons and was left hiding in the rose gardens. The Invicta Stone was bought by a company in Oxfordshire dealing with architectural antiques. In 2011 a former pupil tracked the Stone down and negotiated a purchase price with the company. Audley St Elphin's Park agreed to have the Invicta Stone returned to its rightful home and kindly paid for the it. Old Elphinians (formerly St Elphin's Old Girls' Guild) paid for a suitable plaque to be made and a journey to Oxfordshire, back to St Elphin’s ensued to collect the Stone and return it to its rightful home. The Stone was professionally cleaned and on 6 October 2012 there was an official unveiling of the Invicta Stone which is now situated on the terrace, at the top of the steps leading down to a croquet lawn. Full details of this amazing story can be found at www.stelphins.co.uk/invicta.html. Invicta means "undefeated"!

The old girls and staff of St Elphin's School still maintain strong links with St Elphin's Park Retirement Village through a group set up by former pupil Liz Donlan (nee Bailey, 1967-1973) - The Old Elphinians (TOE). Liz formed the group in October 2012 and has arranged three major reunions at St Elphin's Park in 2012, 2015 and 2019. There was also a reunion in 2013 where old girls and staff met at St Elphin's Park for coffee and then moved to a local hall for the main event which was the unveiling of a beautiful St Elphin's School Memorial Quilt which had been made by two old girls in Australia (Ali Gracie and Jenny Gray). It was made out of pieces of original uniform, laundry bags, school bags etc and both Ali and Jenny took it from Australia to the UK for the unveiling by former needlework teacher, Mrs Barling. It is now hung on a wall at St Elphin's Park together with 5 scholarship boards listing girls who gained entrance to University. In the main entrance hall there is the original display cabinet which houses various trophies. Liz Donlan had permission from St Elphin's Park to use it for memorabilia items from school days - trophies, magazines, boaters, speech day programmes, ties and much more.

In December 2011 Liz Donlan launched a website for the school - www.stelphins.co.uk - and this is being updated all the time as and when old girls are emptying their lofts and coming across photographs etc from their school days.

Alumni

See also

References
  1. "The Story of St Elphin's School, 1844-1944, ML Flood". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
  2. Matlock Mercury 29 January 2004: St Elphin's to close?, accessed 15 April 2013
  3. "Audley St Elphin's Park Retirement Village". Audley Villages.
  4. Polly Bagnall & Sally Beck (2015). Ferguson's Gang: The Remarkable Story of the National Trust Gangsters. Pavilion Books. p. 69. ISBN 978-1909881716.

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