The landlords at the centre of a row into why an independent school closed said they made a deal on the land with a developer in case the school went bust.

It was revealed last month the Chittenden family, which owns Newlands School in Seaford, made a secret deal with Allum Estates three years ago to pave the way for development.

The school, which closed on April 3 because of financial problems, blamed the Chittendens for the closure because the family refused to reassign the lease to education company Cognita which offered to buy out the school.

The family said it was vilified in the Press and suffered hate phone calls and taunts in the street for not agreeing to the deal and upon discovery of the agreement with Allum.

But the Chittendens have now defended themselves and said they signed the deal with the developer as a contingency plan. Ed Stroud, who is married to Jane Chittenden, said: "It has been horrific. My mother-in-law is at her wits' end and is ill as a result. She doesn't feel she can even walk into town in case she gets abuse."

The family, including Mavis Chittenden, and her three daughters Angela, Jane and Phillippa, have long been affiliated with the school as Mrs Chittenden's husband, David, was owner and headmaster until 1986.

Mr Stroud, 37, who runs a landscaping firm, said they realised the school was in financial trouble and sought a contingency plan in case Newlands went bust and the family lost its annual rental income of £160,000.

Mr Stroud said: "We kept it secret because we knew that any talk of the family linking up with a property developer could be seen as a vote of no confidence in the trust and the future of the school. Ironically, the last thing we wanted to be accused of was causing the school to close."

The family obeyed legal advice not to talk about Newlands, which has now reopened at Newlands Court in Sutton Avenue after two parents stepped in with a multi-million pound rescue package.

Mr Stroud said: "We wanted to talk but were told not to. We are not experienced in this sort of thing. We were frightened anything we said would have been twisted."

He said now the school's future was more secure the family felt the time was right to talk about what happened. He said they were first approached about Cognita two days before the school officially closed and were given less than 24 hours to agree to a deal with no paperwork.

Mr Stroud said: "This man walked into my house and told me what a great company Cognita was but before that I had never heard of them. You can't make decisions like that at such short notice."

He said David Chittenden loaned the school £70,000 in 2000 when money was tight and the family tried to talk to the school about its finances twice last year when it became clear necessary maintenance was not being carried out.

Mr Stroud said: "I am confident if we had these discussions then the school would not have closed. The time scales would have been reasonable and we could have done something."

He said the school then asked the family to pay £750,000 to keep the school going until the end of the year. He said: "We would have been more than happy to waive the rent but there's no way on earth the family had that kind of money. We feel we have been an enormous scapegoat for something that was completely out of our control."