基本資料 | Information
The story of Farringtons School begins in 1908. At that time, there was already a very successful Methodist boys’ school in Cambridge, The Leys School, but no equivalent school for girls – an earlier establishment having closed some years before. This situation was giving rise to some concern because it was felt that the daughters of Methodist families would benefit from a good education just as much as their brothers. So, a group of eminent Methodists met on 10 November 1908 to discuss the problem. A committee was formed and it was decided that they would need to open a new girls’ boarding school – effectively a ‘sister school’ to The Leys.
Among these people was Sir George (later Lord) Hayter Chubb, who became the Chairman of Governors at Farringtons School – a post that he held with great care and diligence for many years. Sir George was the grandson of the founder of the Chubb Lock and Safe Company, and he had been a member of the governing body at The Leys School. Other well-known members of the Board of Governors included Mr T Ferens, the Rev. R J Scott Lidgett and Sir George Wyatt Truscott.
To raise funds for the project, certain people were invited to contribute by buying shares in a private limited company. The members of the committee then started to search for a suitable piece of land on which to build their school. They stipulated that the land should be ‘in a healthy and open position, near London, with sufficient ground to allow for future extensions.’
After looking at several sites, they settled on buying the land which Farringtons now occupies in Chislehurst, Kent. This land had formerly been the site of a small mansion dating back to the 17th Century. Before it fell into disrepair, the house had been home to several families, including three generations of the Farrington family who lived there during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and it is from this connection that the school took its original name – Farringtons.