From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Friends' School is an independent fee-paying school (Public School) located in Saffron Walden, Essex, situated approximately 12 miles south of the city of Cambridge. The school is co-educational and accommodates children between the ages of 3 and 18 (boarders and day pupils).

History

Friends' School, Saffron Walden was founded as part of the Quakers' Clerkenwell workhouse in London in 1702, fifty years after George Fox founded the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It moved to Saffron Walden in the late 19th century. It is the only Quaker school in England to have survived continuously for 300 years. It hosts Quaker Southern Summer School and Quaker Southern Senior Conference alternately, switching every four years.

Alumni and associates

• Philip Amis, graphic artist, son of novelist Kingsley Amis and brother of novelist Martin Amis
• Edward Bawden, painter, illustrator and graphic artist
• Judi Dench, British actress and patron of the school
• Ralph Erskine, Swedish based architect and planner (pupil from 1925 to 1931)
• Matthew Evans, chairman and former managing director of Faber and Faber Ltd. Member of the House of Lords.
• Imogen Heap, singer-songwriter
• Martha Holmes, producer for television's The Blue Planet
• Olga Peters, American-born granddaughter of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
• Diana Wynne Jones, author (pupil from 1946 to 1952)
• Tony Newton (Lord Newton of Braintree), politician
• Deborah Norton, actress
• Matthew Robinson, film & TV producer-director, Executive Producer BBC1's top show EastEnders 1998-2000 (pupil from 1958 to 1963)
• Tom Robinson, songwriter and performer (pupil from 1961 to 1967)
• Jeremy Shearmur, philosopher based at Australian National University
• Malcolm Shepherd, politician, businessman and member of the House of Lords (pupil from 1929 to 1935)
• Emily Young, sculptor

Further reading

• The Avenue (school magazine).
• Bolam, W.D. Unbroken community: The story of the Friends' School, Saffron Walden, 1702-1952. (Pub. 1952).
• Buss, R. A Community through three centuries. (Pub. 2003).
• Crosfield, J.B. Saffron Walden School: a sketch of two hundred years. (Pub. 1902).
• Halter, H. The School on the hill: memories of three hundred years of Friends' School, Saffron Walden, 1702 - 2002. (Pub. 2002).
• Hitchcock,T.V. (ed.). Richard Hutton's complaints book : the notebook of the steward of the Quaker workhouse at Clerkenwell 1711-1737. (Pub. 1987).
• OSA Annual reports, at Essex Record Office, Chelmsford.
• Saffron Walden Weekly. Local newspaper founded in 1889. Good coverage of Friends School.
• Woods, J.C. Friends School: A hundred years at Saffron Walden 1879-1979. (Pub. 1979).

See also

• List of Friends Schools

External links

• Official website
• Obituary of Lord Malcolm Shepherd