• For the 17th century country house see Shardlow Hall, Derbyshire
  Shardlow Hall, Derbyshire
  Shardlow Hall is a 17th century former country house at Shardlow, Derbyshire now in use as commercial offices. It is a Grade II* listed building which is officially listed on the Buildings at Risk Register.....
  
  

Shardlow Hall was a school in Shardlow

Shardlow

Shardlow is a village in Derbyshire, England about 8 km southeast of Derby and 12 km southwest of Nottingham. It is part of the civil parish of Shardlow and Great Wilne, and the district of South Derbyshire. It is also very close to the border with Leicestershire which follows the River Trent, ...

, a village seven miles south of Derby

Derby

Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

 in the English Midlands

English Midlands

The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

. It was founded by B.O.Corbett

Bertie Corbett

Bertie Oswald Corbett was an English footballer, cricketer and educator. He played football for England against Wales and was a right-handed batsman who played for Derbyshire during the 1910 season.-Biography:...

, who had played football for England, as a preparatory school for boys. One of its notable students was John Harris, who wrote under the name John Wyndham

John Wyndham

John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes...

.

Origins

The school was founded in Shardlow Hall in a structure built in 1684 as a home for the Fosbrooke family. B.O.Corbett, whose brother C.J. "John" Corbett was already the headmaster of another boys' school on Kedleston road in Derby

Derby

Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

, obtained the hall. The headmaster had earned a Soccer Blue for Oxford University and played for the Corinthians and once for England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1906 against Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

.
The school was founded in 1911; the following year the head married Ella Stagg in Essex. Within three years Britain was at war with Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and both the headmaster and the students were fundraising for wounded soldiers. In 1915 a new law known as the Finance (No. 2) Act was enacted. This law was intended to prevent companies from making large profits because of the war; however, it affected all companies, not just those who were involved in arms and supplies to the armed forces. In this case "companies" included schools. The excess profits tax was calculated by comparing pre-war and wartime profits; however, companies that had seen growth because they had just started could see their profits cut by fifty per cent. The school's charges were set at twenty-five guineas per year, but additional charges were made for linen, the doctor and music lessons.

O.E.P. Wyatt, who went on be a headmaster at Maidwell Hall from 1929 to 1963, was previously at Shardlow Hall.

The head, Mr. Corbett, went on to retire on hundreds of acres of land that he bought, some of which he gave to the state.

Notable students

• His Honour Major Michael Argyle
  Michael Argyle (lawyer)
  His Honour James Morton Michael Victor Argyle QC MC was a judge at the Central Criminal Court of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1988...
  
  , (1915–99) Judge
• Geoffrey Sharman Dawes
  Geoffrey S. Dawes
  Geoffrey Sharman Dawes was an English physiologist and was considered to be the foremost international authority on neo-natal physiology.-Biography:...
  
   FRS CBE (1918–2006) Director of the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research
• Very Rev. Thomas Ashworth Goss (1912–75) Canon of Winchester
• John Harris also known as John Wyndham
  John Wyndham
  John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes...
  
   in 1915.
• Arthur Frederick Crane Nicholls
  Arthur Frederick Crane Nicholls
  Brigadier Arthur Frederick Crane Nicholls, GC, ERD was awarded the George Cross for gallantry and leadership on active service with the Special Operations Executive in Albania in 1944. He is the only member of the Coldstream Guards to have won the medal.Nicholls was born in Hampstead on February...
  
  (1911–1944) Soldier and hero