History of the School

Wheatley Park School today occupies the site of Holton Park 5 miles south east of Oxford, adjacent to the ancient coaching village of Wheatley.

Holton was a manorial village up to 1913 with an archaeological history going back to Neolithic times. The school takes full advantage of this long and varied history, and the Arts Centre is itself the Regency Manor House that was completed in 1808 by Elisha Biscoe. In more recent times a grammar school was founded here in 1949 for east Oxfordshire, and in 1971 Wheatley Park Comprehensive School was opened on two site. This site was the Upper School for students from the ages of 14-18 and the Shotover School in Wheatley was the Lower School for students aged 11-14. In the early 1980's the school was moved onto the Holton Site with many new and re-furbished buildings being built for a school of up to 1400 students.

If you would like to find out more about the fascinating history of the site including royal conspiracies and Cromwell's daughter's wedding, please click on the following two links;

Holton Park, A Short History by Kevin Heritage

BBC Radio 4 ' What Does Theresa really Think ? ' with Nick Robinson

This website is currently under construction and may not be available all of the time. It will become a wealth of archives related to the site as well as giving us the opportunity to extend our numerous links to members of families who lived here and are now scattered across the globe.

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