Ashdown House was given its name by John Trayton Fuller upon his purchase of the site, by Act of Parliament, for £10,000 in 1793. The land had previously comprised the Manor of Lavertye, first recorded in 1285. In 1597, it was part of the Buckhurst estate, a house of brick and Horsham stone with "... several courtyards, gardens, orchards, closes, rooms, two old dwelling houses, and a great barn."
As a school The school was founded in
Brighton in 1843 as a boys' school and moved to Ashdown House in 1886. It first became co-educational in 1975. The last headmaster, from September 2019 to June 2020, was Hilary Phillips, previously of the prep school of
Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls.
Historic abuse allegations Allegations by multiple former pupils of physical and sexual abuse in the 1970s, investigated by law firm
Slater & Gordon in 2013, were followed by widespread recollections from former pupils that the regime at the school in the late 20th century had been spartan and unforgiving, with boys or entire classes regularly punished with
canings. Abuse at the school is much of the subject of former pupil
Alex Renton's book
Stiff Upper Lip and his BBC Radio 4 documentary
In Dark Corners, and is referred to in the memoirs of
Andrew Mitchell. In January 2023 David Price, 76, who had taught at the school in the 1980s, was charged with three counts of indecent assault in the 1980s and was due in court in the following month. He was arrested after an 11-page account detailing alleged abuse was submitted to Cape Town police by a former pupil of Western Province preparatory school in the city. The complainant came forward after claims were made against Price and other former teachers by Alex Renton. ==Notable former pupils==