First established in Slough, it later moved to Westgate-on-Sea, then to Oswestry, and finally to Tottenham House near Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire.

John Hawtrey's son, Edward, removed the school to Westgate-on-Sea early in 1883.

In 1946 it moved again to Tottenham House, a large Palladian country house near the village of Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, in the heart of Savernake Forest, when the last private owner, George Brudenell-Bruce, 6th Marquess of Ailesbury, retired to Jersey.

[2] Throughout the history of the school, a close connection was maintained with Eton College, to which many boys moved at the age of thirteen.

Those taking their sons out of the school included Kanga Tryon, who complained that the atmosphere was "no longer as it ought to be".