Cranford House was founded in 1931 by Miss WE Laurence, over 75 years ago. She started the school in her Oxfordshire home, Cranford House, to teach on pupil, Billy Higgs, the son of a local couple from Blewbury who were involved in horse racing.
Billy came to her home every day for his lessons. In 1934 three more pupils arrived, whose ages spanned from 4-6 years. Miss Laurence opened a Nursery Room to teach these ‘babies’. By 1936 the school had outgrown the three rooms and so the first, official school building made its appearance in the grounds of her home.
The school developed so much over the next twenty years that a separate site was purchased across the road from Cranford House. In 1961 when the traffic on the A329 had become so busy as to endanger the lives of the girls who had to cross it everyday to attend lessons, Miss Laurence decided to move the school entirely to the new site based around a courtyard with a willow tree in the centre. She sold her home to the owners of Moulsford Preparatory School.
Today, the School still resides on that new site and comprises a purpose built Nursery, Lower School, Junior School and a Senior Block and educates a total of 350 pupils.
