Southover Manor School

Southover Manor School was a private boarding school for girls at Lewes, East Sussex, with a preparatory department. History The school was founded in 1924 at Lewes by Winifred Ponsonby. Initially a convent school, it was based at Southover Manor, which later became a Grade II listed building. In 1937, a Southover girl won a major scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge. During the Second World War, the school was evacuated from Lewes to Firle Place, and in January 1940 the school announced that "Southover French Finishing School, specializing in French language and literature, and French cooking and dressmaking, will be opened after Easter in a country house near Lewes, under the direction of M. le Baron and Madame la Baronne de Saint-Péreuse". The school’s buildings in Lewes were taken over by the 6th Field Regiment of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. In about 1960, the mother of one girl was said to have chosen the school "on account of the pleasing decoration in the headmistress's study".