Author: dean
Service and Charity are an important part of Sedbergh School’s philosophy and so to celebrate the School’s 500th anniversary we are planning to enter as many staff, pupils, parents and OS as possible in the Great North Run to raise money for Save the Children. What We Do | UK & Around the World | Save the Children UK
The Great North Run half marathon is run annually at takes place on Sunday 7th September 2025 in Newcastle. We are delighted to partner with Save the Children to support their efforts. All of our staff and current year 12 pupils are invited to run as well as parents and OS. Sedberghian’s will be able to take advantage of a guaranteed Charity Place to run the event.
We are seeking expressions of interest from OS who would like to run. Entry is £35 and there is a £375 fundraising pledge.
If you would like to take part, please complete the form below by Friday 27th September so that Save the Children can secure our spaces.
Charity Fundraising – Save the Children – Great North Run Half Marathon
Please message me if you have any questions.
Many thanks
Richard Wells
Science Teacher & Head of Running
Last month I was contacted by an OS whose father took part in the 400th anniversary celebration walk up Winder. The special day saw hundreds of boys and staff summit the fell. A pupil recorded the poignant occasion in a contemporary Sedberghian Magazine report:
A bare hill-top with mists sweeping over it. A crowd of school boys in shorts and shirts, dimly discernible through the mists as one approached. A master bids them remember the founder of the School and those who have gone before them. A couple of hymns are sung and the blessing of God invoked. Then there is complete silence, while the mists grow thicker and we realise our unity with each other, with our predecessors, and with those who are to come after us.
Unlike today’s walks that are captured on social media and viewed across the globe, no photographs were taken of the occasion, making the vivid description all the more valuable. The only other primary source record of the walk stands in pride of place on the side of the Memorial Lodge, now Speckled Hen Nursery, next to the School gates. Every boy and master who climbed Winder on 25th July 1925 signed their own name on a sheet of heavy card that was framed and mounted on the walls of the lodge. The inscription ‘signed on Winder’ makes clear that this was a considered move, planned in advance to create a permanent record of that special day in the moment, as the boys themselves reached the top of the fell.
As the School and the OS community plan the celebrations for our 500th year it is vital to think both of how we will celebrate this momentous anniversary, and of how we will capture the excitement, energy, comradeship and pathos of our celebrations with those who come after us. The archive collection is the gift of those Sedberghians who walked before us. We must always consider our legacy.
Katy de la Rivière
Archivist
The Tye Trophy highlights some of the best farms in the North of England and recognises the contribution of farmers to conservation and environmental improvement.
Bainbridge Farms were the Overall Winner & Northumberland Area Winner.
Simon and Claire Bainbridge of Bainbridge Farms, Donkin Ridge, Cambo, Morpeth farm 1,650 acres with 180 suckler cows and 1,300 sheep and grow early crop silage.
Their conservation efforts at the organic farm have included replanting hedges and have resulted in many species of birds taking up residence, including oystercatchers, lapwings, curlews and cuckoos.
They also provide education access and have a school room.
Read the full article on the Yorkshire Agricultural Society website HERE.
On Sunday 28th April Old Castertonians returned to Casterton to celebrate the 201st Founder’s Day. Holy Trinity Church was once again filled with those generations of Old Girls who had once occupied the wooden pews in their youth, and the roof lifted with the sound of the Casterton School song while the world swam in the eyes of those who recalled the line, and indeed the motto, ‘One heart, One way’. Old Castertonian Reverend Olivia Haines gave the sermon and spoke of bravery, and the need to have heart, during her sermon.
Afterwards Olivia laid a wreath on the grave of Reverend Carus Wilson while the gathered crowd bowed their heads.
After the service, Casterton alumnae joined the Prep School Headmaster, Will Newman, for tours of the School and lunch in the dining hall, sharing many old stories and new. Will Newman was shocked and delighted by some of what he learned….
It was another memorable celebration of Casterton, of its Founder Carus Wilson, of the girls who had once occupied its halls and classrooms, and of the friendships and memories which yet survive.
At the Founder’s Day Memorial Service we caught up with the Reverend Olivia Haines. Olivia was kind enough to conduct the service and afterwards lay a wreath on the grave of the Reverend Carus Wilson, Founder of Casterton School. During the interview Olivia reflected on what it was like to attend Casterton and why it is important to return.
I was speaking with my old maths teacher the other day, Mr Tony Thomas, who was later to become a very fine Headmaster at Casterton. It was the first time we had said ‘hello’ in years and the conversation naturally led to the days when Casterton was a girls’ school.
As an Old Sedberghian I remember those days. My chums and I in Lupton House had many friends, and indeed siblings, at Casterton. It had its own identity as much as we had ours. We shared a love for our surroundings and our heritage. And sometimes, dare I say it, a love for each other. Perhaps we’ll draw a discreet veil over that particular aspect, although I am always glad to meet Sedbergh/Casterton couples who survived the test of time.
Time has moved on, it is now eleven years since Casterton School became Casterton Sedbergh Prep. The School remains an outstanding academic institution. We still celebrate its Founder, The Reverend Carus Wilson, and many of the values that guided the girls in their time have continued to inspire new generations of boys and girls in the more modern age.
As a former Chairperson of the Sedbergh alumni association, the OS Club, I have a great appreciation of the value of those friendships formed in our youth. Many who attended Casterton feel the same way. Many still share a sense of pride about their school days, and you only have to see the passion and vigour with which the Casterton Old Girls sing the School song on Founder’s Day, with tears welling in their eyes, to understand all that is loved by Old Girls about Casterton. This is too important to be lost.
With this in mind we have ressurected the Old Girls association. Called the Castertonian Society it seeks to maintain those friendships formed at Casterton during the formative years of youth. It has, as its President, a former Castertonian and we encourage Castertonians to help guide the Society’s activities.
We want the Society to prosper, and for this we ask that, from time to time, you let us know how you are doing so that we can share your news. Likewise, if you have friends that haven’t signed up, please encourage them to do so.
But, most of all, please come back to visit. Old Castertonians will always be welcome. It is a School that belongs as much to the past as to the future. It is still your School, it is still, in the words of the School song, ‘Casterton, Casterton, Casterton, our School’.
Jan van der Velde
Director of Development
It is with great sadness that the OS Club has learnt that Rothy (Pauline Anne) O’Brien has passed away. Rothy was a much loved member of the OS Community and was a great supporter of Sedbergh School. Her late husband ,David O’Brien was an OS (Hart, 1945-50) and a former governor of the School. The family is steeped in Sedbergh heritage with three generations all attending the School.
The funeral will be held on Thursday 18th July at 2.30 p.m. at St Andrew`s Church, Dent, followed by her burial in the churchyard. A funeral tea will take place at Sedbergh Golf Club (Catholes-Abbot Holme), Millthrop, Sedbergh, LA10 5SS).
When Carus Wilson founded the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge, he could have had little idea that the archives of his school would still be treasured and shared today. This wonderful collection spans 200 years and charts the progress both of this influential and at times radical school, and of the many girls and women who worked and were educated there.
The collection is broad ranging, including photographs of plays from the 2000s together with contemporary uniform samples, and items dating back to the earliest days of the School. A particular highlight is the admissions register that records the Brontë sisters starting at school. This records that on arrival at school Charlotte Brontë ‘reads tolerably, writes indifferently’. An early account book records a bill paid by Patrick Brontë, including bed, board, clothes, letters and transport of his girls.
For many years the collection was looked after by archivist Dorothy Vernon who took great care to preserve the items while ensuring that they were accessible to girls attending the school and to COGs visiting for special events. Katy de la Rivière continues Dorothy’s good work to ensure that this special collection is looked after. Headmaster of Casterton, Sedbergh Preparatory School, Will Newman and his staff are keen that the history of Casterton School is celebrated at every opportunity. Items from the collection and stories passed down by Casterton School alumnae feature in regular assemblies, classes, chapel sermons and evening talks to ensure that the young people being educated at Casterton today have a sense of importance and ethos of the school in the past. Items from the collection are displayed at Founder’s Day and other alumnae events on the school site and can also be viewed by request.
The collection continues to grow as alumnae and their families donate treasured items retrieved from the back of wardrobes or found in school trunks dragged down from the loft. Some people choose to write out their memories of school days to add colour to the formal photographs, magazines and school reports in the collection. It is a great privilege to continue to preserve and share this precious collection. If you would like to contact the archivist please do so on kdlr@sedberghschool.org.
The Casterton School legend Margaret Scarr kindly agreed to be interviewed on film to share memories of her 45 year career at Casterton (1968 – 2013). Mrs Scarr had many roles at the School including relief housemistress, driver and all round ‘Super Gran’. Over lunch with Will Newman, Margaret imparted the scandalous information that she used to drive Sedbergh boys back to their boarding houses when they had stayed later into the night than intended. We are most curious to find who these Sedberghian boys were…now is your opportunity to be reunited with the kindly woman who rescued you.
Margaret’s full interview is available to watch:
Many Old Sedberghians have sisters, wives and friends who attended Casterton School. Please let them know about the Castertonian Society as we’d love to invite as many people as possible to next year’s Founder’s Day. Please contact castertoniansociety@sedberghprep.org to join
It was a great pleasure to recently interview Alan Waxman, founder of Landmass London (https://www.landmass.co.uk/) a leading multi-award winning RIBA chartered, design and development company, delivering luxury properties around the world.
In the interview Alan tells his story while giving guidance and inspiration to those who want to follow a similar career. Watch the interview below.
Thank you Alan for taking the time to come to Sedbergh and sharing your journey.
Jan van der Velde
Lupton House 1977-1982
Director of Development