Prices Lodge
Residents Association

History of William Price

The Prices Lodge Estate was built on the land where Price’s School once stood.  The school was named after William Price, an eighteenth century Fareham timber merchant who in August 1721 bequeathed property, land and money for the foundation of a charity school in Fareham. 

 

Following his death in 1725, Price’s School opened at his former home in West Street.  A master was appointed to teach fifteen boys and fifteen girls from the poor of the parish to read the Bible, do simple sums and be instructed in the doctrine and principles of the Church of England.  At the end of the 19th century basic state education was made available to everyone up to the age of eleven, and at that point Price’s School was reorganised to provide education for boys (only) above the age of eleven.

 

In 1908 the school moved to the site of the current estate, remaining there for 74 years and becoming a grammar school after the 1944 Education Act.  The school enjoyed a considerable reputation both locally and nationally.

In 1978 the school became co-educational and 4 years later merged with the Technical College to become Fareham College; its present site is in Bishopsfield Road.  Indeed it is the students of the present day Fareham college who have provided the technical and design expertise for this web site.

 

The land on which Price’s School stood was subsequently sold for redevelopment with proceeds from the sale of the land going to the William Price Charitable Trust, which to this day gives grants to young people of the Fareham Town Parishes.  In this way William Price continues to foster education. 

The redevelopment resulted in an Estate comprising 82 three and four bedroom houses on 12.4 acres bounded by Park Lane to the west and Harrison Road to the east. All the houses are either on the spine of the estate formed by William Price Gardens or two side roads; Coghlan Close and Poyner Close, named after previous headmasters of the school.

 

The houses are surrounded by an area of open ground, for which the owners of the houses on the estate pay an annual maintenance fee. This land is private property and intended for the use of estate residents only. It is owned by a company called “Holdings and Management (Solitaire)”, who have hired OM Property Management (www.ompropertymanagement.co.uk) as their managing agents. Each household currently pays approximately £200 p.a. in maintenance charges including management, insurance  and ancillary costs plus a £5 per annum ground rent.

 

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