Cottesmore is a boarding preparatory school in the United Kingdom, founded in 1894.

History

Cottesmore was founded by Geoffrey Davison Brown in 1894 in

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

. He named the school after

Cottesmore, Rutland Cottesmore (often pronounced Cotts'more) is a village and civil parish in the north of the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. In terms of population it is the largest village in Rutland, and the third-largest settlement after O ...

, where he was born. The new buildings for the preparatory school were officially opened on 19 June 1897. Davison Brown served as headmaster until his death in 1929, aged 60. In 1940 the school was evacuated from the south coast of England, to Wales, initially to the Oakeley Arms Hotel, Tan-y-bwlch, Merioneth, and later to a former workhouse in Cors-y-Gedol Hall, near Barmouth, until the end of the war. The school moved to its present site at

Pease Pottage Pease Pottage is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the southern edge of the Crawley built-up area, in the civil parish of Slaugham. The village has a motorway service station, named after the villag ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1946. The school is housed in a

Grade II-listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

mansion known as Buchan Hill that was built in 1882–3 by Philip Felix Renaud Saillard. The building is a large Elizabethan-style house, designed by the architects

Ernest George Sir Ernest George (13 June 1839 – 8 December 1922) was a British architect, landscape and architectural watercolourist, and etcher. Life and work Born in London, Ernest George began his architectural training in 1856, under Samuel Hewitt ...

and

Harold Peto Harold Ainsworth Peto FRIBA (11 July 1854 – 16 April 1933) was a British architect, landscape architect and garden designer, who worked in Britain and in Provence, France. Among his best-known gardens are Iford Manor, Wiltshire; Buscot ...

. Buchan Hill had been purchased in the early 19th century by Thomas Erskine (Lord Chancellor 1806–1807), son of the

Earl of Buchan The Mormaer () or Earl of Buchan () was originally the provincial ruler of the medieval province of Buchan. Buchan was the first Mormaerdom in the High Medieval Kingdom of the Scots to pass into the hands of a non-Scottish family in the male l ...

. In 2023, Cottesmore appointed the first AI headteacher, which they named Abigail Bailey, to assist the human headmaster. Bailey answers questions in the same manner as an AI chat bot like

ChatGPT ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released on November 30, 2022. It uses large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4o as well as other Multimodal learning, multimodal models to create human-like re ...

, with answers often found online. Additionally, students 4 to 13 were given their own individual AI teachers to help with their personal education and needs.

Notable alumni

Gordon Chater Gordon Maitland Chater AM (6 April 1922 – 12 December 1999) was an English Australian comedian and actor, and recipient of the Gold Logie, he appeared in revue, theatre, radio, television and film, with a career spanning almost 50 years. B ...

, actor and comedian *

Robert Hanbury Brown Robert Hanbury Brown, AC FRS (31 August 1916 – 16 January 2002) was a British astronomer and physicist born in Aruvankadu, India. He made notable contributions to the development of radar and later conducted pioneering work in the field of ...

, astronomer * Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House *

Thomas Sopwith Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Hon FRAeS (18 January 1888 – 27 January 1989) was a British aviation pioneer, businessman and yachtsman. Early life Sopwith was born in Kensington, London, on 18 ...

, aviation pioneer

References

External links

Official school website
{{authority control Preparatory schools in West Sussex Grade II listed buildings in West Sussex Grade II listed houses Ernest George buildings Harold Peto buildings