Solway College

Story

Solway College is a girls' boarding school in Masterton, New Zealand. It is an integrated school for girls from Year 7 to Year 13 (Forms 1 to 7) with a limited number of day girl places. The College was founded in 1916.HistoryThe College was established in 1916 by the Reverend Laurence Thompson and his wife Mrs Marion Thompson who was also the first principal. The aim was, and remains, to provide an excellent, progressive education based on Christian teaching and values, an education that developed the whole person: intellectual, physical, cultural and spiritual.BeginningsThe Solway property was a colonial homestead sited in a 100acre originally owned by the Donald family who had first settled the area in 1877. The 80acre adjacent to what would become Solway College were purchased by the Masterton A & P Society for a showground leaving some 18acre planted in heritage trees - silver fir, deodar, spruce, larches, lime, weeping ash, cypress lawsoniana, photinia, juniper, Californian redwood and poplar. A large number of shrubs and native New Zealand bush completed the beautifully laid out grounds. The homestead was constructed entirely from heart totara. The absentee owner at that time was Mrs J. McMaster and the property had been used as a military convalescent hospital.