| A brief
History of the School
The school was founded in Albert Road,
Devonport, by Alonzo Rider in January 1896 to meet
the needs of boys in Plymouth and district seeking a
career in the Navy, as engineers and civil servants. It
was popular and successful, the boys gaining swift
National recognition. In 1906 the Devonport
Borough Council took over the school and over the
next thirty years it continued to provide an individual
and challenging curriculum for its boys who came
from the city and in by train from the Tamar Valley
and Cornwall. Old Boys went on to good careers
both locally and Nationally – and especially in the
MoD. In 1939 the school was evacuated to Penzance and in 1945
returned to the present site, the former Stoke Military Hospital
in Paradise Road -
magnificent Georgian buildings that have proved to
meet all the needs of a 21st Century School as we
have provided specialist facilities in the five main
blocks and in new purpose-built buildings.
Alonzo Rider and the 1902 First XI
| HEADTEACHERS |
1896-1906 AJ Rider FCS
1906-1932 AF Treseder MA
1933-1941 HAT Simmonds MA
1942-1948 WH Buckley BA BSc FREconS
1949-1953 SB Barker MA LLB
1953-1974 JL Cresswell MA DPhil
1975-1993 JGW Peck MA
1993- NM Pettit BSc PhD |
|
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The Stoke Military Hospital
After the success of the Royal Naval Hospital,
built
on the South side of the Stonehouse Creek in the
middle of the 18th Century, the Army decided to build a Military
Hospital on the North bank of the creek. With a work force
of Napoleonic Prisoners of War from the prison hulks on the
Hamoaze, the hospital was completed by 1797 and served the
Army for 148 years. With a hospital on both sides of the creek
the injured forces returning from the Crimea are said to have
coined the phrase “up the creek” to reflect their
fears as they were brought ashore for treatment. The tidal
Stonehouse Creek was filled in in 1973 (with the spoil from
the A38 Plympton Bypass through Saltram and now provides extensive
sports fields for the school and
local community.
The original school building in Albert Road
Investing in our future
Over the past decade the Governors have been
able to invest over £1,500,000 in a significant
programme of renewal and refurbishment of the
buildings and facilities of the school: Our new Sports Hall,
Refectory, Music Centre and Air Training Corps Squadron have
complemented the newly refurbished science laboratories, system
and control workshops and art room. Current projects include
a new school reception, central library and pupil resource
area, fitness suite, sixth form tutorial facilities and two
new lecture theatres. |
