The Garden

The Sevington School garden, redesigned and replanted in Spring 2019, is dedicated to the memory of Don Williams, for many years Honorary President of the original Sevington School Project, who sadly passed away in October 2018.

Don was a founder member of the Project to re-open Sevington School and a true man of vision. He saw the possibility of creating a living museum to offer primary school children a true first-hand experience of Victorian life. It was an ambitious project and it took all his drive and unstoppable enthusiasm to convert it into reality. It was an achievement he was very proud of and he continued to take a great interest in Sevington throughout his life. 

Many tributes were paid to Don following his death, including the following:

Don loved a 'project' and undertook many in his lifetime, from house building to sheep farming and gardening on a grand scale. Our lives growing up were rich and full of wonder. He created a world in which my brothers and I learned how to be the best that we could be. Professionally he was a teacher, headmaster and schools adviser. He believed strongly in an integrated approach to education through topic work and in the potential of every child to succeed in their own way. A project he cared passionately about was Sevington Victorian School which he helped to save so that generations of schoolchildren could learn about their heritage. 

Jeni Williams, Don’s daughter

Don believed that schools should offer their pupils the richest possible learning experience and Sevington with its emphasis on total immersion represented the culmination of this belief. Today's children, stepping back in time to live as Victorians for a day, are the heirs of Don's vision.

Dinah Starkey, Chair of Trustees, Sevington Victorian School

Don was relentlessly positive, constructive and consistent in his educational beliefs. In some ways he was like a stick of seaside rock – the lettering, his beliefs, went right through his middle. And like a stick of rock, however you divided him up that lettering, those beliefs, would still be there – constant and consistent.

Don reminded us that we learn from first-hand experience. You can draw a cake, write out a recipe and methodology. But you don’t know how to bake it until you do it for real. Don wanted teachers to develop children’s work from real life, first-hand experience and from the life within their imaginations. As he would sometimes say, “When you’ve touched it, smelled it, investigated it, drawn it, measured it, read about it, written about it and presented your findings on it you get to understand it better”.

Don played a major role in establishing the Sevington Victorian School project where children could experience learning as Victorian children had. Don’s legacy is all around us. The children, teachers, headteachers and other staff of Wiltshire schools still carry on his work today. His values live on in all of us.

Ken Pritchard, Don’s colleague in the Wiltshire Schools Advisory Service