Schools

Postcards

• The County School, formerly Bedfordshire Middle Class Public SchoolThe Bedfordshire Middle Class Public School Company Limited was created in 1867 with the express purpose of building a school in the county. Two years later that school, in Ampthill Road, Kempston opened. The design for the school was the subject of a public competition, won by Frederick Peel of London and it was built by William Huddleston of Lincoln. The school closed in 1916, partly due to the Great War - the buildings had been requisitioned for use as a military college and the numbers of boys had fallen greatly because many attended the school from overseas. The other main reason for closure was the age and ill health of the headmaster. The buildings were sold in 1920 to the Cosmic Crayon Company and in 1922 they were being leased, in part at least, by Taylor's the box makers. The buildings were demolished as late as 1964 to make way for the offices of Robinson Rental, later Granada TV Rentals. For more information see Bedfordshire County Archives (Ref: PC_Bedford_0181)
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• PC_Bedford_0355The Harpur Centre The Harpur Centre was home to Bedford Modern School before the majority of the building was demolished in 1970 to make way for the shopping centre in its current guise. The school’s east facade was designed by Edward Blore, who is most notable for his work on Buckingham Palace. It was retained and is Grade II* listed.
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• PC_Bedford_0297Former Holy Trinity Church, Bedford (Boots “Pelham” series postcard, unused) Church built in 1838-39 to the designs of John Brown of Norwich with a chancel added in 1865 by F. C. Penrose. In 1979 it was acquired by the Harpur Trust for use as an annexe to the Bedford High School for Girls which opened in 1980. In 2003-4 a sports hall was built to the north of the church. A modern single-storey, flat-roofed extension has been added to the north-west corner of the church. It now forms part of Bedford Sixth Form College.
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• Dame Alice Harpur School, formerly Bedford Girls Modern SchoolThe school was established in 1882 as the Bedford Girls' Modern School, at the same time and on the same site as the Bedford High School for girls, both of which were part of the Harpur Trust group of independent schools. At first, it shared its premises with Bedford High School, until in 1892 it moved to St Paul's Square, occupying the William Cowper building left vacant by the Grammar School. In 1938, having outgrown its St Paul's Square site, the school moved to new buildings designed by Oswald Milne on the southern bank of the Great Ouse on Cardington Road, Bedford, built on playing fields there already owned by the Harpur Trust and used by the school. Valentine’s postcard : 216245 J. V. (ref: PC_BedfordDAH_0001)
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• PC_Bedford_0394Crescent House College - At No. 19 The Crescent Mrs Smith had run a boarding and day school for young ladies since the early 1860s. The 1871 Census shows that,with her son acting as assistant, she had a music and a French teacher and two governesses to teach 24 resident scholars. Mrs Eleanor Carroll, wife of Charles Carroll of the British Consular Service, became Principal of the College in 1879. The 1881 Census shows that she, together with her sister and three governesses, taught 17 boarders and some day pupils. By 1885 she had realised the school needed to move to larger premises and she purchased land at the Conduit Road corner of Bromham Road and built two large houses and by 1890 the school had opened in Bromham Road with place for 160 pupils. These premises later became part of the Convent School. The school had a resident French teacher (possibly the writer of this card - franked Bedford and Versailles in 1903 - the arrow points to her “petite chambrette") and the master who taught German at the two boys schools also taught German at the Crescent School. In 1913 Mrs Carroll retired (she died at Eastbourne on the 31st December 1940 aged ninety) and the school was taken over by Miss Flora Jane Fry, English teacher at the School, and Miss Laura Hammond, who had been a pupil at the school, and they re-located the school to 11 Linden Road. In 1925 Miss Fry retired and she died in Bedford in September 1941. The School closed in about 1935 with Mrs Jarrett Lucas as the last principal.