Sub-Series BES/1/18 - Deanscroft

A collection of documents, mainly photographs, of Deanscroft house.
Deanscroft in the 19th century was a Jacobethan hunting lodge. In 1946, the Headmaster, G. Talbot Griffiths, brought the property and aimed at converting it into a boarding house. The boys’ boarding house opened in 1948, providing accommodation to thirty-seven boys on the first term. In 1959, the kitchen garden to the east of the Laboratories was transformed into lawns, grassy plots and flower beds. The house was enlarged in 1960 and the buildings by the Headmaster’s garage were annexed as studies. IN the 1960s, the boiler house was enlarged to house two large oil-fired boilers which provided Deanscroft and Wharflands with all the hot water they need and supplied central heating to both houses and all the adjoining classrooms and laboratories. In 1963, a new study block was built near the present Biology Laboratories.
In 1978, Deanscroft was refurbished and the Headmaster and his family were now occupying one part of the house. Further enhancements were made to Deanscroft in 1981, especially to the changing rooms and the ground floor accommodation. A new wing was added in 1983, with bedsits for the boys and a Tutor’s room, as well as study bedrooms for thirty-six boys in the Fifth and Sixth Forms. On Deasncroft lawn, a new fence was put up between the Headmaster’s garden and the boys’ tennis court in 1985 and Deanscroft Cottage was dismantled in summer before work began in October on the new Dining Hall. The Nursery School and Beach studies were also demolished. Finally in 1989, the Beach was paved and in the centre would be a Japanese gardens with herons in the pond. Deanscroft boarding house was closed on Speech Day 1989, prior to its conversion into Stevens, a boarding house for girls.