HISTORY In the early 1930s, Abbot John Chapman of St Gregory’s, Downside in Somerset, was looking for more adequate buildings to which to move his Junior schools. Some 30 locations were examined before deciding on a large country house called Paddockhurst. The house was formerly owned by the late Lord Cowdray who had died in 1927. The monks established a prep school in 1933. During the WWII the School evacuated to Somerset and the Worth Estate was taken over by Canadian troops. For the latter stages of the War, Worth Abbey was a significant location for intelligence gathering and planning ahead of the Normandy landings as the Allied Forces sought a conclusion to the conflict. In April 1944 the 8th Corps, under the command of General Sir Richard O’Connor, was moved from its headquarters in Yorkshire to Sussex to plan for the invasion of D-Day, which took place on 6th June 1944. It was during this time that both Montgomery and Eisenhower visited Worth. In 1957 Worth Abbey became independent from Downside and two years later in 1959 the Senior School was founded. In the 1990s Worth became the first English Benedictine school to take both boarding and day pupils, and the important transition to co- education began in 2008, with the first boarding and day girls accepted into the Sixth Form. Girls were welcomed into the lower years in 2010 and by September 2012 the School was fully co-educational in all years. The School has had a lay head since 2002 with the Abbot being President of the Board of Governors. Selected members of the monastic community also serve as Governors or as House Chaplains.
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