|
:''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School or Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas'' 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. ==History== A school was established in Bedford as early as the thirteenth century, adjacent to St Paul's Church.〔(''Victoria County History: Bedfordshire'' ), Vol. 3 (1912)〕 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."〔De-la-Noy, p.223〕 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 ''c''1519, 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.〔(WILLIAMS, alias SCOTT, John (by 1519–61 or later), of Bedford. | History of Parliament Online )〕 Shortly thereafter, William Harper (born in Bedford in ''c''1496)〔Godber, Joyce (1973). The Harpur Trust 1552–1973. White Crescent Press Ltd. ISBN 0-9502917-0-6.〕 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.〔Godber, Joyce (1973). The Harpur Trust 1552–1973. White Crescent Press Ltd. ISBN 0-9502917-0-6〕 In the 1680s, as a consequence of London's rapid expansion in the late seventeenth century, the land in Holborn, with which William Harper had endowed Bedford School in 1566, was built upon. The rental value of the thirteen acres of land and three roods of meadow, purchased by Harper in 1564 for just £180 13s, soared and the future of Bedford School was assured.〔 Harper's surname was changed to 'Harpur' in 1764, nearly two centuries after his death. This was supposedly in the belief that the new spelling looked much better when used in a Latin inscription, still visible today, below the statue of Harper on the facade of the old school buildings in St Paul's Square.〔De-la-Noy, p.227〕 Whatever the truth of this story, in that same year, 1764, the Harpur Trust was formally created by Act of Parliament to administer Bedford School's endowment.〔 James Surtees Phillpotts was appointed as the twenty-second Headmaster of Bedford School in 1874, at the age of thirty-five, and he remained in that position until his retirement in 1903. It was during his time as Headmaster that, on 29 October 1891, a procession of masters, pupils and old boys moved the school from its site in St Paul's Square to its third, current, and far more spacious location in buildings constructed on land to the north of St Peter's Green.〔De-la-Noy, pp.47–72〕 The new Main School Building, in Gothic Revival style, included a great hall with galleries opening to classrooms on the second and third floors. The ground floor included the Headmaster's study, the Bell Room, common rooms for masters and, later, for monitors, as well as more classrooms. Access to the upper floors was by narrow staircases situated at each end of the building.〔De-la-Noy, pp.63–64〕 Bedford School's Main School Building remained in this form until a disastrous fire on 3 March 1979 destroyed all but the west end where the Bell Room and the Headmaster's study were located. All that remained of the rest of the building was the brick shell which was incorporated in the restored building. The restored Main School Building was opened on 10 September 1981. In the interim the school functioned in twenty-two temporary huts and by using the Howard and Craig buildings on the school estate.〔M.E. Barlen, M.P. Stambach and D.P.C. Stileman (1984). Bedford School and the Great Fire. Quiller Press. ISBN 0-907621-37-6〕 In 2005, Bedford School was one of fifty of the country's leading private schools which were accused of running a price-fixing cartel which had allowed them to push up school fees. Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling £3 million into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared. The school estate has seen many developments over the past century, most recently the erection of two new buildings: the new Library in 2004, and the new Music School in 2006. Work on the construction of a new school theatre is currently proceeding apace. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bedford School」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|