St David's School, Middlesex

St David's School

The Ashford school shortly after opening in 1857
Location	Church Road Ashford Surrey TW15 3DZ England Coordinates: 51°26′19″N 0°28′06″W / 51.438540°N 0.468262°W / 51.438540; -0.468262
Local authority	Surrey

St David's School was an independent girls' school in Ashford (historically in Middlesex, but from 1965 in the district of Spelthorne in Surrey), England. The school was originally established in London in 1716 as the British Charity School or Welsh Charity School, and moved to Ashford in 1857. It was at first a boys' school, and then from 1758 co-educational, but from 1882 it began to admit girls only and became known as the Welsh Girls’ School. It changed its name to St David's School in 1967, and closed in 2009.

The school was originally established by the Honourable and Loyal Society of Antient Britons (founded 1715), a London-based Welsh society, as a charitable institution to assist impoverished Welsh children in London. In the later 18th century it was also supported by the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (founded 1751), another London Welsh society.

The school opened informally (with 10 boys and a master) in 1716 in a house in Sheer Lane, London (probably located near Temple Bar), and was more formally instituted in 1718. In 1719 it moved into one of the buildings of Ailesbury Chapel, Clerkenwell, the former chapel of the medieval Clerkenwell Priory, but at this date in use as a Presbyterian meeting-house. The chapel was reconstructed as an Anglican parish church (St John Clerkenwell) in 1721–3, when the school appears to have moved to nearby Jerusalem Passage. The numbers of pupils fluctuated through this period, though there were at times up to 50 boys.

In 1738 the school moved into a new purpose-built home on Clerkenwell Green. The construction of this building, designed by James Steer, was funded by subscriptions. The building (greatly altered and restored) survives, and is now the Marx Memorial Library.