Milton Mount College

Gardens

The Buildings - The Various Homes of 'MMC'

The first home of MMC was a large three-storied Victorian building whose
foundation stone was laid in 1870. This was built on a hill in the
village of Milton, just outside Gravesend in Kent.

This area proved vulnerable during World War One and the school was
evacuated in 1915 to Cirencester, taking up residence in the buildings
of the Royal Agricultural College.

The building at Gravesend was used as a military hospital. Because some
of the patients had been suffering from venereal diseases, it was felt
unsuitable for the school to return there after the war, and the search
was on for a new home in pleasant surroundings.

Such a home became available when the Worth Park estate was put on the
market by its owner, Sir Francis Montefiore. This comprised a fine
Victorian mansion, with its own artesian well and extensive grounds,
providing a safe and healthy rural environment but close to the railway
station at Three Bridges. For the next 19 years, the school flourished, and the facilities were improved by the addition of a well equipped
gymnasium and an open air swimming pool.

World War Two forced a second evacuation, to Lynton in Devon, with far
from ideal accommodation in the Imperial Hotel and various apartments in the vicinity. Life here provided some extra degree of freedom to the
girls and the bonus of the lovely seaside and hills until the school
could return to Worth Park in May 1946. Military occupation of the
building had caused considerable damage - a bullet hole in the front
door never was repaired - but the school's happy normal life was
restored until circumstances forced its closure in 1960.