The Downs, Malvern College Prep School

The Downs School at Colwall was founded in 1900 by Herbert Jones, who had been educated in Cambridge and was headmaster at Leighton Park School when he and his wife Ethel Jones founded the Downs Malvern as a preparatory school for boys. It opened with four pupils, and slowly expanded, with 40 pupils in 1918. The Jones were Quakers, and the Downs was unusual in being a Quaker school, a status which would eventually fade away. The Quaker ambience meant that several of the staff were conscientious objectors in the First World War. It was also unusual in pioneering extra-curricular activities, such as music and hobbies, for its pupils. This innovation would eventually spread across the…