Bedford High School for Girls was a private school for pupils aged 7 to 18 in Bedford, England. It was one of a number of schools run by the Harpur Trust. The school was located on its original site in Harpur ward, near the centre of Bedford, until its closure in 2012. In September 2010 the junior department of the school merged with the junior department of Dame Alice Harpur School. From September 2011 to September 2012 the senior schools also merged, the new school is known as Bedford Girls' School.
New school buildings encroached on the nearby houses of Adelaide Square and The Crescent, but never blocking the view of the fine Victorian architecture of the main building from Bromham Road. The original school at first housed both the "High and Modern School for Girls". Each school had its own half of the building, but by the end of the century the Modern School moved to premises of its own in the centre of the town, and in 1938 to its present site near the river where, from 1946, it became known as Dame Alice Harpur School.
The Junior School acquired a new wing in 1896, and remained there until moving into a building in Adelaide Square in 1985. In the 1890s the Main Hall was extended out towards the road so that it became T-shaped. It also obtained a pipe organ built by Norman and Beard of Norwich which was used for daily assemblies. Other notable changes included the gym built in 1931 which became a theatre, the acquisition of the former Trinity Church which was converted into a dining hall with classrooms above in 1981 and, most recently, in 2005, the new sports and performing arts complex with many facilities including a 25 x 13 m swimming pool.
By the turn of the century the numbers were above 600, at which level they stabilised until the late 1970s when again they grew, reaching around a thousand in the 1980s.
Sport in the early years of the school consisted of drill given by a sergeant. The gymnastic dress was made of heavy thick blue serge with a light blue sailor collar. Games only began when an asphalttennis court was laid down in what became the playground. In 1900 the school acquired the field which is where the girls went to play games. The flourishing of the PE department owed much to the vision of PE teacher Stansfeld (BHS 1887-1918). Before its closure, the school had 22 acres (89,000 m²) of games field and a spa centre ('the Canary Cage'), formally opened in 2005 by past pupil Stephanie CookOBE, (Olympic gold champion and World Champion in the modern pentathlon).
Music, Dance and Drama always played a large part in school life:
"Miss Belcher was keen on music, and arranged for five pianos to be placed in a large room, each enclosed in as many glass cases, and just big enough for a pupil and a music teacher. In this way, it was said, the girls would be able to practise in school without disturbing one another! It probably had more to do with making it possible for one mistress to chaperone the girls with their music masters. Bond-Andrews, the piano teacher, would have none of it: he dragged the first piano out of its glass case, wishing with all his heart for it to be suffocated. Harding was in charge of music for four decades: designing the new organ, and building up a music department with excellent orchestras and choirs. Today there are still those who remember the dreaded Joyce Harding, his daughter, who trained the choirs, and auditioned all junior girls at the beginning of each year. Those who could not sing in tune were labelled "ghosties" and were only allowed to mouth!"[citation needed]
King George V and Queen Mary visited the school in 1918 and complimented Collie on the way the girls curtsied, and Harding on the way they sang "God Save the King". On another occasion, in 1942, they sang the Yugoslaviannational anthem. This was for the visit of Maria of Yugoslavia. A governor was heard to remark afterwards how clever the choir were to learn it in such a short time, and in a foreign language. They had, in fact, been singing the song in English.
Later history
Before closure about ten per cent of the girls attending the school were boarders, living in four boarding houses: Wimborne Grange, The Quantocks, Westlands and The Chilterns. Girls studied for GCSEs and A levels as well as the International Baccalaureate. In the last years the school took on a very multicultural character, reflected not just in the English language support given to the international students and the variety of Language A levels taken, but also in the social life: linguistic assemblies and fundraising days in which girls were sponsored for a variety of things, such as speaking all day in a language other than their mother tongue. In the sports department girls competed at county and national levels, and the hockey and lacrosse teams travelled to the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, and Prague.
Merger
In July 2009 the Harpur Trust announced its intention to merge Bedford High School with Dame Alice Harpur School, because the schools had seen a drop in pupil numbers over the years: In 1990 more than 2,000 girls were on the rolls of the two schools, but in 2009 there were only 1,500. In November 2009 it was announced that the new merged school would be called Bedford Girls' School, and would be located on the current site of Dame Alice Harpur School. The junior department of the new school opened in September 2010, when the junior schools of Bedford High and Dame Alice Harper merged on the Cardington Road site.[3] The senior department of Bedford High School started to transfer to the new school in September 2011, with the full merger, including the sixth form department completed in September 2012.[4]
In September 2012, Bedford College leased most of the site of the former Bedford High School for a campus in the north of Bedford town centre. The college later bought the old main school buildings, Trinity Church, and the Sports and Performing Arts (SPA) complex from owners, the Harpur Trust in March 2014.[5] The college does not occupy the neighbouring accommodation such as former houses in Adelaide Square that were used by the school. The Bedford Sixth Form (which is Bedford College’s branding of its sixth form provision) now occupies the campus and the SPA complex runs under Trinity Arts & Leisure, managed by Bedford College Services Ltd.
Headmistress Katharine Westaway wrote a book detailing the activities and difficulties of old girls during World War II. So many of them did work that would have astounded previous generations: she quotes
"What do you mean to do when you leave school?" "I am joining the A.T.S." "What will you do there?" "I want to be a gunner."[6]
Many of the girls joined the services: three joined the Air Transport Auxiliary: "These women used to check over the aeroplanes when they left the factories, certify them, and ferry them to the aerodromes from which they were to work, so they needed a theoretical and a practical knowledge of a very high order..."[7]
Some of the girls were resident in the Far East and were subject to the horrors of war: their husbands became prisoners of war of the Japanese, or were killed, or they themselves were interned.[8]
Many of the girls were at home, and even they were subject to bombing, in many cases being bombed out of their houses. They took on new duties in civilian life in support of the war effort; notable were those old girls whose administrative skills were put to work in arranging the evacuation of children, involving encouraging support from sometimes reluctant householders.[9]
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of its urban area, including Kempston and Biddenham, was 106,940. Bedford is also the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford, a unitary authority that includes a significant rural area.
Bedford School is a 7–18 boys public school 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 one of the boys' schools in the United Kingdom, and was the winner of the Independent Boys School of the Year Award at the Independent Schools of the Year Awards in 2021.
The Harpur Trust is a charity in Bedford, England. The stated aim of the charity is to help and support the people who live in and around Bedford, and to help them improve their lives by:
The Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) is a group of 25 independent schools, including two academies, in England and Wales, catering for girls aged 3 to 18. It is the largest group of independent schools in the UK, and educates 20,000 girls each year. It was formed in 1872 to provide affordable day-school (non-boarding) education for girls as The Girls' Public Day School Company (1872–1905), then The Girls' Public Day School Trust (1906–1998).
Notting Hill and Ealing High School is an independent school for girls aged 4 – 18 in Ealing, London. Founded in 1873, it is one of the 26 schools that make up the Girls' Day School Trust. It has a Junior Department of 310 girls and a Senior Department of 600 girls. The current Headmaster is Mr Matthew Shoults. Ms Bevan is Head of the Junior School.
The Girls' Schools Association (GSA) is a professional association of the heads of independent girls' schools. It is a constituent member of the Independent Schools Council.
Dame Alice Harpur School, known from 1882 until 1946 as Bedford Girls' Modern School, was a private girls school in Bedford, England, for girls aged 7–18. In September 2010 the junior department of the school merged with the junior department of Bedford High School. From September 2011 to September 2012 the senior schools also merged; the new school is known as Bedford Girls' School.
Sir William Harpur was an English merchant and philanthropist who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1561. Born in Bedford, he moved to London and amassed a large fortune. In 1566, Harpur and his wife Alice gave an financial endowment to support several charities including ones focused on education. The endowment eventually became the Harpur Trust, which supports four independent schools in Bedford today.
St Leonards School is a private boarding and day school for pupils aged 4–19 in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Founded in 1877 as St Andrews School for Girls Company, it adopted the St Leonards name upon moving to its current premises, the site formerly occupied by the University of St Andrews’ St Leonard's College, in 1883.
Roundhay School is a mixed, all-through and sixth form community school in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. In 2020, the school received a World Class Schools Quality Mark, which requires an 'Outstanding' Ofsted assessment as well as further assessments.
Streatham & Clapham High School is an independent day school for girls aged 3 to 18, in south London. The school was founded in 1887 by the Girls' Public Day School Company, which established schools for girls providing academic, moral and religious education.
Merchant Taylors' Girls' School is a selective private girls' school in Great Crosby, Merseyside, England.
Harpur is an electoral ward and area within the town of Bedford, England.
Bedford College is a further education college located in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. It is the principal further education provider in the Borough of Bedford, and is a member of the Collab Group of high performing schools.
Bedford Academy is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in the Kingsbrook area of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England.
Bedford Girls' School (BGS) is a private school for girls which opened in September 2010 located in Bedford, in the English county of Bedfordshire. The school is a result of a merger of Bedford High School and Dame Alice Harpur School, and is operated by the Harpur Trust. The school became fully operational in September 2012.
Mary Anne "Marian" Belcher was an English educator and school administrator, the second headmistress of Bedford High School.
Bedford Girls' School Rowing Club is a rowing club based on the River Great Ouse at the Harpur Trust / Longholme Boathouse, The Embankment by Butterfly Bridge, Bedford, Bedfordshire
Katharine Mary Westaway was a British classical scholar and headmistress.
References
A History of Bedford High School ed. K.M.Westaway; F.R.Hockliffe(1932)
A History of Bedford High School ed K.M. Westaway; Bedford(1957)
A Century of Challenge: Bedford High School 1882 to 1982; ISBN0-9508303-0-5
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