Wycombe Abbey

Wycombe Abbey is an independent girls' boarding school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top schools regionally and nationally in academic results, the school was founded in 1896 by Frances Dove, who was previously headmistress of St Leonards School in Scotland. Its present capacity is approximately 615 girls, aged 11 to 18. The school is situated on a 160acres campus in central High Wycombe. The land includes woods, gardens and a lake, and rises up to 500feet above sea level in the Chiltern Hills. The freehold is owned by the school; the main house and several buildings at Wycombe Abbey are Grade II* listed. The current headmistress is Rhiannon Wilkinson. HistoryEarly historyThe history of the building predates school's acquisition of it. In the thirteenth century, the area, with the parish church, was part of the holding of the Abbess of Godstow. 600 years later, the priory at Godstowe was also re-founded as a school by Dame Frances Dove, and today is a 'feeder' preparatory school for Wycombe Abbey. On the site of the present Wycombe Abbey was a large manor house known as 'Loakes House' which was the seat of the Archdale family, until 1700, when Thomas Archdale sold it to Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne. The earl in turn bequeathed the estate to his grandnephew, William Petty, (who inherited a different Earldom of Shelburne in 1761 and became Prime Minister in 1782). The Shelburnes, though, had a far larger and grander residence at Bowood House in the Savernake Forest and spent little time at Loakes House.

Wycombe Abbey is an independent girls' boarding school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top schools regionally and nationally in academic results, the school was founded in 1896 by Frances Dove, who was previously headmistress of St Leonards School in Scotland. Its present capacity is approximately 615 girls, aged 11 to 18. The school is situated on a 160acres campus in central High Wycombe. The land includes woods, gardens and a lake, and rises up to 500feet above sea level in the Chiltern Hills. The freehold is owned by the school; the main house and several buildings at Wycombe Abbey are Grade II* listed. The current headmistress is Rhiannon Wilkinson. HistoryEarly historyThe history of the building predates school's acquisition of it. In the thirteenth century, the area, with the parish church, was part of the holding of the Abbess of Godstow. 600 years later, the priory at Godstowe was also re-founded as a school by Dame Frances Dove, and today is a 'feeder' preparatory school for Wycombe Abbey. On the site of the present Wycombe Abbey was a large manor house known as 'Loakes House' which was the seat of the Archdale family, until 1700, when Thomas Archdale sold it to Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne. The earl in turn bequeathed the estate to his grandnephew, William Petty, (who inherited a different Earldom of Shelburne in 1761 and became Prime Minister in 1782). The Shelburnes, though, had a far larger and grander residence at Bowood House in the Savernake Forest and spent little time at Loakes House.