Our History

Canford School was founded in 1923, but occupies buildings with a rich history stretching back to before the Norman Conquest. The first written record of Canford Manor is an entry in the Domesday Book in the 1080s.  The only mediaeval part still standing, known as John O'Gaunt's, dates from around 1400 and is now used by the school debating society, as a general meeting room and for formal dinners. 

In 1846, the Canford estate was bought by Sir Josiah John Guest, a wealthy steel works owner, and his wife Lady Charlotte for £354,000, a tidy sum in mid-nineteenth century. The Guests engaged Sir Charles Barry (best known as architect of the Houses of Parliament) to remodel the house. The most obvious additions were the imposing Tower and the Great Hall, now used as the school’s dining hall, which features an elaborately decorated high roof, a huge stone fireplace decorated with the Guest family’s coats of arms, mosaic figures from Canford’s history and stained glass windows.

Barry also designed Nineveh Court, an addition on the eastern side of the main building, built to house the Assyrian treasures which Lady Charlotte Guest's archaeologist cousin, Henry Layard, brought back from the Middle East. Most of the collection was sold by Guest’s grandson, Lord Wimborne, in 1919 and is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.  Happily for the school, some smaller items were overlooked, to be rediscovered in the 1950s, when they were sold for £14,000. The one remaining bas-relief, from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, was examined at that time and declared to be a plaster copy. The visit to the school of an American historian, Professor John Malcolm Russell, in 1992 led to the amazing discovery that this bas-relief was genuine and it was sold at Christie’s in 1994 for £7.7 million, a record sum for an item of ancient art. The school has invested this windfall wisely, setting aside a substantial amount for scholarships and bursaries and funds towards the building of a new sports hall, theatre and girls’ boarding house.

Canford timeline

1923 to 2023 and beyond

“Canford’s current pupils are indeed lucky to be able to enjoy such a rich and varied architectural heritage, and the school’s History Department ensures that they are well-informed about it by including a unit on the History of Canford Manor in the Year 9 scheme of work.”