Foundation & History

Truro School was founded by Cornish Methodists in 1880. Truro School Prep, originally called Treliske Prep School, was opened in 1936 and Willday House, its pre-preparatory department, started its life in 1991.

 

The main building of the school is Treliske House, which was built originally as a private house in 1879 by William Teague, a local mine captain.  When the cost of building exceeded William’s funds, he sold the house to Sir George Smith, who later became Chairman of Governors of Truro School.  Sir George made his fortune from manufacturing detonators for mining and the large stained glass window overlooking the grand staircase reflects the many aspects of his business interests.   In 1926 his family sold Treliske to the Methodist Church, who used the house briefly as a retreat for “tired” ministers.  Clearly there were not enough of these and the church handed the house on to Truro School for use as its junior boarding house.

 

The first Headmaster was Tommy “Pa” Stratton.  In due course he was succeeded by Alan Ayers, who was head for 26 years until 1989. Russell Hollins took on the baton until 2003, before Matthew Lovett, the current Headmaster, took over in January 2004.