David Raynor

2025 | 184pp pb | ISBN: 978-1-914002-55-7

It is one thing to have a dream, quite another to make the dream a reality. Charles and Muriel Oxley saw the potential of a former teacher training college in a 150-room mansion, and in September 1964 they opened Scarisbrick Hall School. For more than three decades the school flourished, but successive owners were later beset by the huge financial pressures associated with maintaining the Hall. The school almost closed down.

The Headley family had a child in the school and the determination to restore what the Oxleys had built up. Their commitment and financial resources have produced a school that once again stands out as a beacon of excellence.

As the school celebrates its 60th anniversary, David Raynor, a staff member for half that time, including twenty-one years as Headmaster, tells the story of One School: Two Families, a history of Scarisbrick Hall School.