Derek Brunt was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire on the 12th January 1922. He married Irene Hempsall in June 1946 in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Irene qualified as a State Registered Nurse (SRN) on the 20th february 1952 at Paddington and Lambeth Hospitals in london. Their daughtersHe was a Child Welfare Officer under the London County Council as the warden of a working boys' hostel at Stockwell, London and as warden of a hostel and school at Seaford, Sussex run by the Invalid Children's Aid Association. He opened Murray House, Cranbrook, Kent in 1957. for boys with social problems - a number of them absconded from the Kent County Council home on the 3rd February 1958, were later found at Hastings. Their two daughters were born during their residence in Kent They subsequently set up Burnt Norton Approved School close to Aston Subedge, near Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire in 1961, He purchased a 21 year lease for the premises but on 4th September 1972 he purchased Cheswardine Hall and surrounding land for £40,000 and continued to run Burnt Norton Approved School from the Hall.
Burnt Norton School Ltd would be struck off the Register of Companies three months after a notice in The Gazette on 9th December 1977. On hthe 18th April 1978 Burnt Norton School was dissolved and struck off the Register of Companies