 At the end of the war it returned to Winchester.In 1953 the school was bought by Jerry Cornes, who was headmaster until 1988.For most of its history West Downs was a boarding school for boys aged between eight and thirteen, but in 1970 it admitted its first girl, and from 1975 to 1988 it was co-educational (though curiously the school's founding intake in 1897 of four comprised two girls).