Barnhill
1898 – 1932
Barnhill was built in 1898 on land which had been part of Lower Pickhurst Green Farm. The main farm buildings were in Barnfield and adjacent to the road now called Pickhurst Lane. The cottages had been lived in from at least the beginning of the 18th century.
In 1898 the owner John Bramsdon sold Thomas Gillespie Chapman Browne, an Actuary with the Guardian Assurance Society, ‘all that piece or parcel of ground together with the cottages and buildings erected thereon situated in the Parish of Hayes … on the north east side of a road there called Hayes Lane at its junction with Pickhurst Park Road containing 2a 3r 16p.’
The existing buildings were pulled down and a new detached residence was built of red brick and tiles, with 4 attic bedrooms on the second floor, 6 bedrooms, a workroom, two bathrooms, linen closets, housemaid’s pantry and WC on the first floor. On the ground floor by 1912 there was a drawing room, morning room, dining room & kitchen and also a garage. Its value was £4513.
Mr Thomas Browne was 54 years old when he moved in with his wife Anne, two daughters, two sons and four resident servants. Sarah White, the cook, still worked for them in 1911 and was 63 years old. Mary Mason who was 40 in 1901 was still employed by them in 1921 and his unmarried daughter Dorothy was the only child still living at home, presumably helping her father who was now 74 and her mother who was 70 years old. Her older sister was married but was also visiting on census day. Thomas lived another 10 years until August 1931 and his wife died in 1942. Both are buried in Hayes churchyard.
Barnhill School 1932 – 1964
After Thomas died in August 1931 the house was leased to Robert Hilary Smith, son of Mr and Mrs W R Smith of 217 Pickhurst Lane, to become a boys’ preparatory school. A new era was beginning for the house.
Barnhill School opened in May 1932 but Robert Hilary Smith resigned as headmaster in 1937 and C E Colbourne became the headmaster. A private limited company was set up and in May 1939 Thomas Browne’s executors sold the property to Barnhill School Ltd for £3,600. The money was provided as a mortgage by Dame Elizabeth Waldron, wife of one of the governors Sir William Waldron, a former sheriff of London. By the outbreak of the Second World War three new classrooms and a science laboratory had been built and there were 112 pupils. Further expansion plans were halted and financial difficulties led to Barnhill School Ltd going into voluntary liquidation in 1941. Dame Elizabeth Waldron became the owner of the school. She continued to own the property until her death in 1947 when Sir William Waldron inherited it and sold the school to Lucy Codrington and her husband Ernest for £7000.
In 1957 Lucy Codrington sold Barnhill School to Noel Lincoln Westbury Jones of the Cathedral School, Llandaff for £8000. He became the new headmaster. The school closed after his death in 1961 and his wife Kathleen sold the school and its land to the builders A J Wait and Company in 1964. The main house was pulled down and private housing was built although Barnhill Cottage [268 Pickhurst Lane] was retained.
