Enid Blyton's Inspiration Restored to Full Glory

The iconic Highlands Turret at Godstowe has been restored to its former glory. It has been out of action for the last three months but now it has been rebuilt. Rumour has it that the Highlands Turret, visible from Amersham Road, was the inspiration for Enid Blyton’s famous 'Malory Towers' series about a girls’ boarding school.  Enid Blyton’s daughters both boarded at Godstowe in the 1940s, and the blustery hillside location of the first all-girls boarding prep in the UK with its quirks and traditions gives a definite hint of adventure - midnight feasts, clashes on the lacrosse pitch, and lessons about life and friendship.

At Malory Towers, the most successful old girls are not “those who have won scholarships and passed exams” but those who have become “good, sound women the world can lean on”. Godstowe was founded by two strong, progressive women, originally in fact as a school whose purpose would be to prepare girls for the move down the hill to Wycombe Abbey School. Their vision was for an innovative, academic, and broad education for girls and, without a doubt, this continues to live on in today’s school.

Non-selective, with an emphasis on developing confident and happy children, our school is also highly successful, with pupils regularly scoring first-choice places at top senior schools as well as an impressive number of scholarships. Located in 12-acres of leafy parkland overlooking High Wycombe, Godstowe is overseen by Headmistress Sophie Green, who puts teaching girls about friendships and having fun as high up the agenda as maths and physics.

Sarah Oborn from Buckinghamshire County Council was delighted with the restoration commenting that "The tower is looking really good and it is apparent that the work has been undertaken to a high standard/specification in keeping with the building’s original construction".

Headmistress Sophie Green noted that “it was a high point for us last week to reopen the Highlands Tower; it is a very picturesque aspect of our site and I am delighted to have it back in action”.