New College to mark centenary of school for sight-impaired girls

Students and staff at New College Worcester (NCW) are to celebrate the centenary of a former residential school for girls with little or no sight.

Chorleywood College opened in 1921 and in January, 2021, a series of themed events will take place at NCW to commemorate the founding of the school, which later merged with the Worcester-based boy’s school, Worcester College, to become New College Worcester as it is today, a national residential school and college for young people aged 11 to 19 who are blind or vision impaired.

Chorleywood College was founded by the National Institute for the Blind (now the RNIB).

In January, 1921 Miss Phyllis Monk, the first headmistress, was establishing the first secondary school for girls with a vision impairment.

Many girls from Chorleywood were to be pioneers, going on to university and into occupations including physiotherapy, engineering, education and the law. 

The school was located in the Cedars, a large Renaissance-style mansion in Hertfordshire.

The building and grounds of The Cedars in Chorleywood, is now the site of the Cedars Retirement Village.

The boys’ school in Worcester and the girls’ school in Hertfordshire were both closed and merged to form the new school which opened on the Worcester site in 1987, with many students and some staff moving to Worcester to attend it.

On Thursday, January 21, 2021 NCW will hold a day of celebration involving 1920s themed lessons and meals, historic displays and a virtual event where former students and staff of the school can celebrate and share their memories.

Anyone wishing to join the virtual event or share their memories of Chorleywood can find more information on the school website www.ncw.co.uk/chorleywood-centenary.

Two of today’s NCW students next to a commemorative wooden sculpture celebrating the merger of the two schools in the 1980s

Chorleywood girls in the classroom