Search for more accommodation and playing fields ends at Sidmouth:

Transfer during summer 1954

West Bank Girls' School, which was founded in Bideford in 1896 and in its steady development has played an important part in the educational facilities offered by the town and district, will be leaving for a new home at Manor House, Sidmouth, this summer, commencing there in September.

North Devon Gazette 21 January 1896

Miss M R Hewlett, who has been headmistress since 1938, told the 'Bideford and North Devon Gazette' that the decision to move had not been arrived at without some reluctance. Ever since the war, and particularly since 1950 when West Bank became a Church of England Independent Public School, they had been asked to take more boarders than it had been possible to accommodate.

The Manor House, Sidmouth, the School's new home, was offered for sale following the death of the owner, Colonel J E H Balfour, and was first purchased by Sidmouth Urban Council in order to prevent undesirable development. Standing in 29 acres of ground, the Manor House is easily accessible to the sea, the town and railway. Tennis and squash courts are already in existence and the extensive grounds include suitable sites for playing pitches. It is planned to convert the large stables attached to the house into classrooms while the house itself will form the living quarters of the school.

Miss Hewlett stressed that except for being in more beautiful surroundings West Bank will continue exactly as it is - the resident staff will be accompanying the school to South Devon - and present standards, customs and traditions will be maintained. The fact that the School was moving did not mean that they did not want Bideford girls, said Miss Hewlett; in fact, realising that they would be losing some of their best girls, who were day pupils, had made the Council hesitate before reaching their decision. But, she added, any day girls who were able to come to the school as boarders would be given preference for vacancies.

Miss M E Abbott, of Littleholme, Westward Ho! the founder and first headmistress of the school, said "I am very very sorry the school is to leave West Bank after 58 years because Bideford and West Bank have always been so closely associated, but I think it was inevitable because the school was outgrowing its boundaries. My only wish is that a Junior Day School could be started in the same place."

West Bank School officially opened on January 21st, 1896, Lansdowne Terrace, Bideford, and by the end of summer term there were eight pupils with one boarder.

During the recent war West Bank was more directly implicated than in 1914-1918. In the first six months room was found for more than seventy children voluntarily evacuated into the district, but even the war could not stop the progress of the school. In 1939 the junior classroom block was erected and connected with the gymnasium by a bridge staircase. In the spring of 1940, Mr Paul Spurrier bought the goodwill of Lindfield Preparatory School as a separate entity. Two years later, Clooneen, a house adjoining West Bank was purchased by the school and opened as a new junior boarding house.

 In June 1946 the School celebrated its golden jubilee. A year earlier Miss Hewlett had completely taken over the school from Miss Abbott.

"Springing from a modest origin exactly fifty years ago, West Bank School, Bideford, - now one of the leading private schools of its kind in the South-West - has this year celebrated its golden jubilee and Friday was the day set aside to mark this noteworthy occasion.

It was a day not only of celebration, but of thanksgiving and of dedication to the future of the school and its pupils. A feature of the occasion was the large number of Old Girls who came from far and wide to show their appreciation and affection.

It was most fitting that the first principal, the present principal, Miss M R Hewlett, and one of the very first pupils, Mrs Sly, of London, formerly Miss Dorrie Cook, should all be present. It was a particularly happy day for them."