History of Ashcombe House

In 1922 pupils returned from the summer holidays to find notices pinned on the gym notice board for red, blue and yellow houses. The pupils' names had been allocated, rather mysteriously, to each of the houses and thus began the day house system. In 1936, a new house was introduced - green house. Over the years boarding houses were created: Bronte, Keller and Symes. Eventually two day houses emerged as Austen and Nightingale. In 1976, under Mrs Platt as Headmistress, the houses were reorganised into the present six day house system replacing Austen and Nightingale. Ashcombe became one of these houses, adopting its colour as red.

In 1898, two Surrey schools of Cranleigh and Bramley had reached a Royal Charter, which was obtained for them through influence and generosity of one of their chief benefactors, Lord Ashcombe. The Ashcombe name originates from this man. Lord Ashcombe was chairman of the Bramley and Cranleigh schools corporations, and was also chairman and one of the original founders of the school until 1914, when war broke out.

Miss Massey, originally from Nightingale house, was appointed housemistress of Ashcombe from its very creation in 1976. She was a pillar of support and dedication throughout her time with the house. Mrs Williams became our House Mistress in September 2000 when Miss Massey retired. Mrs Williams took over the running of the house with enthusiasm and vigour, working with Mrs Silver who was the Fourth Form tutor. Miss Komor replaced Mrs Williams in September 2005 and, as Mrs Silver had also by this time stopped tutoring, the new Fourth Form tutor was Mrs Strong. Miss Dyball was our first, designated U3 tutor and this extra support for the U3s has always been proven to be invaluable. In January 2008, Mrs Strong was asked to become a Sixth Form tutor, and so Mrs Rusholme took the Fourth Form helm.

Ever since 1976 when we were the first house to brave the rigours of a skating expedition to Richmond, events have followed, such as mufti days, sales, pantomimes and quizzes, all to raise money for charity.

Our reputation as "the friendly house" has remained with us throughout the years. Ashcombe always puts up a good fight in all the inter-house competitions and have done especially well in Swimming as well as, more recently, the Drama competitions. However, we often continue to retain second place in many events, and after researching Ashcombe's history we have found that our second place tradition was also the case way back through the years! But we are not disheartened as the potential of the house is very promising and we are embracing 2008 with great optimism and anticipation.