Cranleigh School

Cranleigh School is an independent, co-educational, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–19 in South East England. Opened in 1865, it remains on its original campus, around 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) north of the centre of Cranleigh, Surrey. In March 2025, the school, together with the associated prep school, educated a total of 961 pupils between the ages of 7 and 19, of whom 575 were boarders. The current Head is Samantha Price. The school has international campuses in the United Arab Emirates and China. The earliest proposals for the school were put forward in 1862 by George Cubitt, the MP for West Surrey, and John Sapte, the local parish priest. Henry Woodyer was commissioned to design the buildings and the foundation stone was laid in 1863. Cranleigh School opened to male pupils on 29 September 1865, although the original quad was not finished until 1867. The chapel and dining hall were completed two years later. These original buildings, all designed by Woodyer, were Grade II listed in July 1993. From an initial total of around 150 boys in 1866, numbers in the school reached 280 by 1892. A joint application with St Catherine's School, Bramley, for a royal charter was made in 1897. The charter was granted the following year, establishing the Corporation of the Cranleigh and Bramley Schools. A major expansion of the school campus began in the early 1910s, with the purchase of additional land and the opening of new science laboratories. Two buildings designed by Edwin Cooper were completed in 1929, providing additional dormitories and a purpose-built auditorium. The first day girls began studying at Cranleigh School in 1971, and the first female boarders were admitted to the sixth form three years later. The school became fully coeducational in 1999.