Our History

Founded in 1945 by JR Ward and his wife Maureen, Skippers Hill Manor Preparatory School is, today, a well established local landmark educating around 120 children.

There are two commonly held theories as to where the school’s name came from, the first being that the rarely seen Skipper butterfly was once common in the immediate vicinity.

Another theory was advanced by the famous English polymath CB Fry, who represented his country at both football and cricket, and who lived at Skippers Hill Manor. His family discovered the underground tunnels previously used as safe-deposits by smugglers and their "Skippers". This theory seems more credible, as this area was known to be a centre for the illicit exporting of wool to France and Holland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the equally illegal importing of tea, spirits, tobacco and silk. During that period, smugglers transported their cargo along forest tracks and river valleys to the many inland distribution centres at the heads of the rivers. Skippers Hill, near the headwaters of the Ouse and the Rother, was one such centre.

JR and Maureen Ward ran a busy boarding school with pupils from all over the world, providing an excellent home and education to generations of boys, and later girls as well. In 1978 their daughter Maxine and her husband Sydney Assayag joined the school, and 18 years later took over the management of the business.

Skippers is now a well-known day prep school, with traditional values that prepare our pupils for a successful, independent future.