Sandridgebury, Sandridge, Hertfordshire, England

• Place
• Suggest

• the house;
• Bury Farm; and
• five enclosures of arable land.

1966-1969 Hardenwick Preparatory School

In 1966 it became a school when Hardenwick School moved in and absorbed Aylesford House School which moved from London Road, St Albans.

Advertisement for Hardenwick, after the move to Sandridgebury in 1966. Credit: LHS archives..

Hardenwick School closed circa 1969.

1970-1974 Concord School

A private boarding school for American high school students called Concord School moved into the Sandridgebury after Hardenwick School closed. The school was purchased and run by the MacIver family from Boston until 1974.

Freddy Shusuter told Thrale.com on 26 October 2017 …

I attended the Concord School at the house for about 18 months until it closed suddenly in 1974. The school offered a loose, experimental sort of coeducational environment for a cast of a few dozen vagabond students whose parents lived in various places throughout Europe and were paying dearly to keep their kids housed there. I remember a sweet older lady who did the cooking and a gentle soul named George MacIver who acted as headmaster and lived with his family in apartments upstairs. Music rang out constantly; a fellow from New York named Pip played rather good blues piano for hours in the main hall. When everyone could "get it together," classes were held in what were refurbished stables, while students lived in both the main house and the coach house. Some days, students and teachers would walk through the field to Sandridgebury, where there was a village pub and a few small shops. I only lived there for a few months, preferring instead to take the train up a few times a week because I missed London and the city's exciting music scene. In summer 1977, I returned for a day and the house was indeed dilapidated, abandoned and in desperate need of repair. It was rather spooky spending a melancholy afternoon wandering around with not a soul to be seen. If anyone sees this who also attended Concord, please do get in touch.

1978 onwards

In 1978 Richard William Thrale, co-author of Historic Sandridge bought the whole of the very dilapidated main building at Sandridgebury and saved it from demolition. Much remedial work was done to convert the mansion into three superb establishments. A complete re-roofing was undertaken even before the completion of the purchase. A dividing wall was built from the cellars to the crutch of the roof, and one unit was sold in November 1979. Richard Thrale continued to refurbish the shell into a beautiful home that became known as Sandridgebury House and took up residence in March 1981. The Old School House and Coach House were separately divided off, occupied and refurbished. Sandridgebury became home to four families.

See also: http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/places/places-s/sandridge_/sandridge-sandridgebury.htm