History of St Wilfrid's

St Wilfrid’s School was founded in 1953, located in a building called “Oakwood” on the south-west side of Crawley which now forms the administration block. Oakwood was previously a private residence with an interesting history.

The house was originally built in 1872 for General Charles Longden, who had recently retired from the Royal Artillery having served in China and India (in the Indian Mutiny). He bought the land (9 acres) and built a smaller house than the one we see today on what was called Perry Field. He died in 1894 age 72 and the property was passed to his son the Reverend Henry Isham, a clergyman in the Anglican Church, but due to Henry’s duties for the church he did not live in the property.

It was then sold to Philip Saillard, a merchant for Ostrich Feathers which were very fashionable in high society at the time. He again did not live in the house, seeing it as an investment. After a series of tenants the house was sold to a Horace Hill who worked as a printer in London. The Hills found the house too small and embarked on a building programme which included the front of the house to give us the façade as we know it today. The association with schools started at that time as Mrs Hill generously let Crawley Schools use the grounds for an inter-schools sports meeting in 1933. The Hills sold the house in the same year to Mr Shirley Hall Birt who was a retired doctor from the Navy. He died in 1938 and his estate sold the house to Antonio Gordon, whose family were Spanish but had come to England and set up a wine importing company with the sole agency for importing Domecq Sherry.

After the family, sadly, split up, the House and grounds were offered to the Catholic Church. The Church saw the need for a secondary school in the area to offer a good all round Christian education and purchased the property for the sum of £12,500. At the time (1952) this was a lot of money. Land had been added to cover the 21 acres which is the same as today.

The school opened in September 1953. This was a momentous year for the country as well as St Wilfrid’s, seeing the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Edmund Hilary conquering Mount Everest for the first time, Crawley New Town being developed and the Manor Royal Industrial estate being built. The population of Crawley was around 5000; the average wage was £7.55 per week and the food bill was £4.25.

In the school’s first year it had 112 pupils and 7 teachers. The first Headmaster was Michael O’Reilly who lived in a flat at the top of the current main building. The uniform was maroon blazers with a logo badge and grey skirts for girls or trousers for the boys; the code of dress was strictly enforced.

Sadly Mr O’Reilly died in 1963 but his legacy - a thriving school - lives on.

The current extensions were built over a period of time with S block being the first in 1958. In the early 1960’s C block was added and, over time, other buildings. Finally in 1970 the science and art block were the last additions.

During this time (in 1967) the school became a comprehensive. The numbers increased from 112, to over 800 in the early 1960’s, to the level today of over 900.

Head teacher Mr Bernard Smith retired in the summer of 2006 having led the school for 15 years and leaves the school a great spiritual and academic legacy. During his tenure he oversaw the continued growth of the school in both size and success, the pinnacle of which was its achievement in 2005 of Specialist Status in Business and Enterprise with Ethics. He also paved the way towards the building of the new school to be opened in 2008 - another major milestone in the chronicles of St Wilfrid’s.

In the autumn term of 2006 the school was ably supervised by Acting Head Paul Walker and Acting Associate Head Ann-Marie Franklin, both of whom achieved a great deal in a short amount of time. St Wilfrid’s is happy that they both remain with us in their former posts of Deputy Heads.

January 2007 saw the arrival of new Head Teacher Jonathan Morris, a father of two who was previously Deputy Head at St Paul’s Catholic College in Burgess Hill. As preparations for our move to the new school building gather apace and fundraising picks up speed, we look forward to a bright future under Jonathan’s leadership and are confident that he will build on St Wilfrid’s rich experiences over the years to take us on to even greater successes in the future.