Polam Hall

Harrington Lee, a prominent Darlington merchant, built a house in the country in 1794 and lived there with his family for 27 years; upon his death in 1824 his remaining family sold the property in the area referred to as 'Polam Hill'. In 1825, Jonathan Backhouse, a financial backer of the railways, bought 'Polam Hall' (on Polam Hill) and was responsible for renovations including the landscaping of the grounds; it was not until 1828 that his wife Hannah (née Chapman Gurney) and family moved in. As members of the Darlington Society of Friends (Quakers) and ministers they undertook missionary work resulting in them having to travel extensively around England and America. As cousins of Edward…

'Polam Hall' was sold to William and Robert Thompson, who leased it to the Procter sisters for use as a Quaker ladies’ finishing school. Jane Proctor had founded her first school in Selby which had lasted for twenty years. She founded "Selby School" in 1848 as a boarding school for girls at Number 11 Townhouse, in Houndgate helped by her sisters Elizabeth and Barbara. Polam Hall's owners (the Thompsons) went into liquidation in 1878, and one of their largest creditors, Quaker M.P. Arthur Pease, became Polam's new owner. In 2004, boys were introduced to the school for the first time when the sixth form became coeducational. Previously, some boys from the nearby boys' independent school…