Bedford School
 |
|
| Motto |
Floreat Schola Bedfordiensis (May Bedford School Flourish) |
|---|---|
| Established | 1552 |
| Type |
Independent day and boarding Public School |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Headmaster | James Hodgson |
| Founder | Edward VI |
| Location |
De Parys Avenue Bedford Bedfordshire England |
| DfE number | 822/6002 |
| DfE URN | 109718 Tables |
| Students | 1111 |
| Gender | Boys |
| Ages | 7–18 |
| Colours | navy and white |
| Publications | The Ousel |
| Former pupils | Old Bedfordians |
| Website | bedfordschool |
Bedford School is an HMC independent school for boys located in the county town of Bedford in England. Founded in 1552, it is the oldest of four independent schools in Bedford run by the Harpur Trust.
Bedford School is composed of the Preparatory School (ages 7 to 13) and the Upper School (ages 13 to 18). There are around 1,100 pupils, of whom approximately a third are boarders. In 2014, James Hodgson succeeded John Moule as Headmaster.
According to The Good Schools Guide, Bedford School is "much-respected by those in the know" and is "an unpretentious school which has everything a boy could need." It has produced one Nobel Prize winner, recipients of the Victoria Cross, twenty-four rugby internationals, and the winners of seven Olympic gold medals, educating leading personalities from fields as diverse as politics, academia and the armed forces, cinema, the legal profession and sport.
A school was established in Bedford as early as the thirteenth century, adjacent to St Paul's Church. The current Bedford School was established on 15 August 1552, when the Mayor, Bailiffs, Burgesses and Commonality of Bedford were, by letters patent issued by Edward VI, granted the right to establish a school which was to provide "education, institution and instruction of Boys and Youths in Grammar, Literature and Good Manners." The driving force behind the establishment of the school was John Williams, Mayor of Bedford three times between 1546 and 1552, and MP for Bedford between 1554 and 1555. Born in Bedford in c1519, Williams had purchased several hundred pounds of former monastic property in 1544-45 following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. This included the old schoolhouse, and during Williams' first mayoralty, between 1546 and 1547, the Bedford church of St Peter Dunstable was demolished and the materials were utilised in carrying out repairs to the school. Shortly thereafter, William Harper (born in Bedford in c1496) and his wife, Alice, set out to provide funds for an educational endowment in perpetuity (later known as the Harpur Trust) for the "poore chylders ther to be nurryshed and enformed". The endowment included buildings in Bedford and thirteen acres of land acquired by Harper in Holborn. And so, conveying this endowment to the corporation of Bedford on 22 April 1566, Harper provided Bedford School with new buildings at its second location, in St Paul's Square, and a house for the Headmaster, Edmund Greene. Elected Lord Mayor of London in 1561 and knighted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1562, William Harper's coat of arms and crest included the eagle which remains a symbol for Bedford School.
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