Notes by Danny Howell, first published in A Selection Of Warminster Ephemera, in November 1996:
Cambridge House, a two storey brick building, on the east side of Sambourne Road, Warminster, was built about 1800. From 1842 onwards it was one of the most successful ladies’ boarding schools in the district, the senior principal being Miss Emily Lindley Haskew and the under principal being Miss Mary Ann Cruse. Emily Haskew was the daughter of Charles Haskew of Pimlico, London. Mary Cruse, who was born at Horningsham, was the sister of Thomas Cruse who was for many years the Town Surveyor for the Local Board. Emily Haskew died at Highfield, Isle of Wight, on 6th August 1876, after which Mary Cruse continued to run the school as sole principal.
An advertisement for the school in Kelly’s Directory For Wiltshire 1880 notes “Cambridge House, Warminster, Wiltshire. Church School for Girls. Healthy situation; half a mile from the Town and Railway Station, with bracing breezes from the Downs. Careful supervision. Pupils prepared for Cambridge Local Examinations. Resident French and other Governesses. Professors attend. Terms: Inclusive of Board, Laundress, English, French, Music, and Drawing (or Dancing), 40 guineas per annum. Singing, German and Dancing on usual terms. References to Clergy, and to Parents of former or present pupils. Further particulars on application to the Principal – Miss Cruse.”
By 1881 Mary Cruse was being assisted at the school by her niece Sarah Cruse as an English governess, and another niece, Louisa Cruse joined them as a governess by 1891. Mary Cruse retired in 1896, living at Luxfield Cottage, Sambourne. The school was then taken over by Miss E.M. Ripley and Miss F.M. Ripley, the daughters of the Rev. Frederick William Ripley, M.A., who all resided at Cambridge House. The Misses Ripley only carried on the school until about the turn of the century.
Mary Ann Cruse died at Luxfield Cottage on the morning of Friday 17th March 1905. She was in her 87th year. Her funeral, held at St. Denys’ Church, was officiated by the Rev. J.S. Stuart, Vicar of Christ Church, and the Rev. R.L.A. Westlake, Vicar of Sutton Benger.
Miss Cruse’s boarding pupils, over the years, included Fanny Baily, Mary Blake, Anne Brain, Mary Clutterbuck, Ethel Cockell, Isabella Cox, Annie Cruse, Ethel Currie, Louisa Ellison, Bessie Giles, Annie Harding, Ellen Harding, Emily Harding, Mary Haskins, Clarissa Hayden, Alice Hitchcock, Rosalie Hitchcock, Alice Holloway, Edith Holloway, Ethel Hunt, Kate Hunt, Ethel Jefferies, Elizabeth King, Alice Langford, Ethel Leonard, Anna Lush, Ann Mace, Fanny Matthews, Eliza Mines, Eliza Parfitt, Emily Parfitt, Eliza Parsons, Catherine Powell, Mary Powell, Edith Reeves, Mary Reeves, Ada Rudderforth, Alice Rudderforth, Dorothy Rudderforth Edith Rudderforth, Kate Rudderforth, Louisa Ruddle, Annie Shearman, Harriett Smith, Alice Style, Elizabeth Ward, and Ann Wilkins.
The teaching staff, during the school’s history, included Miss Fanny Bayly (governess); Miss Alice Flux (governess); Miss Jane Gratton (nurse/governess); Miss Maria Sandoy, born at Neuchatel, Switzerland (French governess); Miss Emily Satzmaun (music teacher); Miss Lydia Schelpe, born at Lille, in Flanders, France (French governess); Miss Emma Rosetta Sheppard (music teacher); Miss Ada Twenlow, born in Dublin (governess); and Miss Anna Vollmer, who was born at Perleberg, Prussia (German and French teacher).
Other employees at the school, over the years, included Ann Burrows (housemaid); Miss Couzens (cook); Emily Francis (cook); Martha Knee (domestic servant); Eliza Pictor (cook); and Charlotte Scammell (cook).
Cambridge House has in more recent years been converted into two properties and these, by 1971, were numbered 54 and 55 Sambourne Road. Number 55, which is now numbered 43, has been known as Greenaways for much of this century. Viscount Weymouth, M.P., (Henry Frederick Thynne, later the 6th Marquess of Bath) lived here during the early 1930s following his marriage to his first wife Daphne, one of the daughters of Lord Vivian, but it was afterwards the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Thomas Wall. (Mr. Wall, a well known garage proprietor in Warminster, who hailed from Frome, had previously lived at Windyridge, Weymouth Street).
The handbill, shown below, publicising Cambridge House School, was first issued in 1869. The roof line of the property today [November 1996] differs from that shown in the illustration; no doubt this was altered when the building was converted into two residences. The property no longer has such an open aspect from the street because the ground floor is now hidden from view by a yew hedge behind the low brick wall. The wrought iron gate to Greenaways features an ornate vase with tall sprouting flowers.