Motto |
Veritas Scientia Fides (Truth, Knowledge, Faith) |
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Established | 1885 1999 (mergers) |
Type | Independent day and boarding |
Religion | Methodist |
Headmaster | Simon Smith |
Chaplain | Rev'd Nick Sissons |
Founder | Thomas Osborn |
Location |
Pwllycrochan Avenue Colwyn Bay Conwy LL29 7BT Wales |
DfE number | 662/6019 |
DfE URN | 401972 Tables |
Students | 185~ (Prep) 410~ (Senior) |
Gender | Co-educational |
Ages | 3–18 |
Houses | Morgan Osborn Payne Wesley |
Colours | Black, Amber |
Website | www.rydalpenrhos.com |
The pavilion at New Field, Rydal Penrhos
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Ground information | |||||
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Location | Colwyn Bay, Wales | ||||
Coordinates | 53°17′47″N 3°44′24″W / 53.29639°N 3.74000°WCoordinates: 53°17′47″N 3°44′24″W / 53.29639°N 3.74000°W | ||||
Team information | |||||
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As of 10 August 2009 Source: CricketArchive |
Rydal Penrhos School is an independent co-educational boarding school in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. It is the only Methodist school in the independent sector in Wales. It is located on multiple sites around the town with a site in the neighbouring village of Rhos-on-Sea where it keeps its watersports equipment for easy access to the beach.
Rydal Penrhos has a strong tradition in sports and the arts. The school's 1st teams in both hockey and rugby have, in recent years, been a strong selling point for the school, which thrives on their successes. The 1st XI hockey team, along with the U16 team, have been exceptionally successful in the Welsh Nationals, claiming several titles in the past five years. In 2007, the U16 boys team won the North Wales Final at hockey, only to go on and lose in the final at Nationals.
The school started life as five separate institutions:
In 1887, Payne had founded St John's Methodist Church on Pwllycrochan Avenue, which was used regularly by both Rydal and Penrhos. In 2010, the stewardship of St John's was passed to Rydal Penrhos, which needed more space for school worship and special events.
A degree of uniformity of design in central Colwyn Bay owes much to a single architect, Sidney Colwyn Foulkes, whose concept has been followed by other architects. His father designed St John's Methodist Church, and he was responsible for many of the school's buildings, as well as others in the vicinity, and further afield in North Wales. This led to the area that includes the school being designated as Colwyn Bay's first conservation area.
During the Second World War the main campus of Rydal was occupied by the Ministry of Food. The school was evacuated to Oakwood Park, a small country estate 2 miles west of the town of Conwy. The school returned to Colwyn Bay in 1946.
During the Second World War, the Penrhos College site was taken over by the government for Ministry of Food use. The Duke of Devonshire, anticipating that schoolgirls would make better tenants than soldiers, offered Chatsworth House for the use of the school. The contents of the house were packed away in eleven days and 300 girls and their teachers moved in for a six-year stay. The whole of the house was used, including the state rooms, which were turned into dormitories. Condensation from the breath of the sleeping girls caused fungus to grow behind some of the pictures. The house was not very comfortable for so many people, with a shortage of hot water, but there were compensations, such as skating on the Canal Pond. The girls grew vegetables in the garden as a contribution to the war effort.