Mrs Julie Vine, Head of Learning Resources, is working with the OQA, along with Mrs Cresswell and Mr Kelley, to create an Archive Room in the Pauline Edgar Library.

The new facility will serve as a museum of Queenswood’s history, showcasing treasures from our 130-year archive. It is hoped that the Archive Room will open later this year.

One of the most fascinating documents that Mrs Vine has discovered is this pamphlet from 1924, the year before Queenswood moved from its original home in Clapham to the present Hertfordshire site.

The author, Arthur Page, waxes lyrical about this idyllic setting of the new premises, then named Sheepwell House:

‘A fine drive, bordered by majestic chestnuts and high rhododendron banks brings the visitor in a broad sweep to the house, a spacious two-storied red brick mansion, its walls half-timbered or hung with rich red tiles…

…A striking feature of the building is the abundance of windows. Never…have I seen a dwelling furnished with so many inlets for light and air. The house stands four hundred feet above sea level on gravel soil, and the south front overlooks a wide stretch of lawn, ample for at least eight tennis courts, and parkland….The interior of Sheepwell House is as attractive as its elevation. The place is well-planned and its living rooms bright and pleasing.’

Mr Page is describing the original incarnation of what is now Trew House; that building was destroyed by fire in 1936 and rebuilt in sympathetic fashion a year later.