Rye St Antony School
Rye St Antony School occupied two large Victorian houses in Pullen’s Lane, Langley Lodge and the Croft. The former gateway to the Croft is shown above, but the main entrance of the school was at the back off Franklin Road.
The school was named after the Church of St Antony in Rye, Sussex and was founded in 1930 by Elizabeth Rendall and Ivy King, two teachers who had been converted to Roman Catholicism. It started life in North Oxford: first in Hamilton Road, where there were only eight pupils, and then at 84 Woodstock Road, where it started to take in boarders.
At the outbreak of war the Woodstock Road premises were taken over by the city of Oxford, and the school moved up to Headington, taking over a large house in Pullen’s Lane called Langley Lodge. By the end of the war there were 42 boarders and 17 day girls, and the school expanded into another large house in Pullen’s Lane called The Croft. In 2002 Rye St Antony School had 100 boarders and 300 day pupils, aged 3 to 18.
In September 2024 Rye St Antony Roman Catholic School (on a site of 12 acres) was amalgamated with the adjacent Headington School.(23 acres). A prep school for girls and boys aged 3–11 is now located on the former Rye St Antony site.
For 1½ years the combined school was named Headington Rye, but on 10 April 2026 its company name was changed from "Headington Rye Oxford Limited" to "Headington School Oxford Limited", and the whole 35 acre site is now known as Headington School.
