History
Bedford School was granted letters patent by King Edward VI in 1552, aided by the actions of Sir William Harpur, a Bedford merchant who would later become Lord Mayor of London. Evidence of the school dates back much further, however, with first mention made in the Domesday Book of 1085.
In 1891, the then headmaster James Surtees Phillpotts oversaw the moving of the school from St Paul's Square in the town centre to its present day site to the north of High Street. Many developments have occurred on the site over the past century, most recently the erection of two new buildings in the last five years: a £1 million library and a £3 million music school
In 2005 Bedford School was one of fifty of the country's leading private schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.
The exterior of Bedford School was used to represent the fictional Brookfield School in both the 1969 film Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
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“Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.”
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—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.”
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