[1][2] It was the brain-child of Alban Woodroffe [Wikidata] a prominent local landowner and educationalist who in 1922 supervised the construction of the original building on the hillside site overlooking the harbour town of Lyme Regis.

For the first forty years, the school was a small mixed grammar school drawing students from a wide rural and coastal area of West Dorset and East Devon.

In 1950, a decision was taken to add boarding houses to the school with strong links being formed with armed services parents and those working overseas.

there are 1,058 students on roll (sixth form 200); boarding has been phased out in line with the national decline in demand for places.

There were plans drawn up in the late 1990s, following the closure of Allhallows, Rousdon, and other private schools in the area due (mainly to declining pupil numbers in these smaller schools), for newer buildings to be established on 'top pitch', but this never came to anything.