Cunningham Hall

The Cunningham Hall of Technology - a rather grand title perhaps for one of the best buildings on the Park - occupies the site of the original manor house where the Grosvenor family lived before the Mansion was built at the end of the 19th Century. The story goes, incidentally, that shortly after Richard Grosvenor (Lord Stalbridge) inherited, he contracted typhoid, and when it was discovered that the drains of the house ended up under the kitchens, this was the signal for the old house to be pulled down and the Mansion built. I wonder! Anyway, the stone of the old house was removed by a local entrepreneur, Mr Prideaux, who used it to build Motcombe Grange, until recently another Prep School in the village. Mr Prideaux was one of the earliest to experiment with powdered milk, and he made a fortune when he sold out to Cow and Gate. When the Grosvenors moved away in the 1920s - apparently the South and West Wilts Hunt was not quite posh enough! - the Prideaux family bought the freehold of Motcombe Park, and it was from the two spinster sisters Prideaux that a previous Headmaster bought that freehold in 1972.

 

I digress! "Cunningham" as it is always known (named after Sir Hugh Cunningham, who was Chairman of the Governors from 1977 to 1994 and is still the School Visitor) incorporates three Maths rooms; three Science laboratories (each equipped to teach the three Sciences); an ICT room with the very latest computing and communication equipment; a Design and Technology complex; Art, Pottery and Photography studios and a Lecture Theatre. The Educational Support Unit is also housed here and, with its staff of experienced and qualified teachers, caters expertly for children whose needs do not require a specialist school.

 

The building was completed in 1992 and, with its extensive use of glass, both within and outside, was designed to allow for cross-curricular work in a light and spacious environment which fosters the children's interest in the aesthetic and the scientific.

 

Look out for the reconditioned clock in the foyer. It is probably the oldest clock in Dorset and was found in the stable block, now the Pre-Prep, and may well have been brought to Motcombe by the Grosvenors from an earlier time and a previous location. Here too you can see the time capsule - or at least its location! - which the children buried when the building was completed, as well as a record of the visit our School Address Book made to space inside the Space Shuttle! Come and find out more!

 

Click here to continue to Centenary Hall via the Tree House