Lady Hawkins' School is situated in the market town of Kington in north west

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

. It operates as a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

, which takes children from the age of 11 through to the age of 16. The school is currently led by headteacher Paul Jennings. The school comprises two houses named after prominent figures in Kington's past: Banks and Garrick. The sixth form was one of the smallest in Herefordshire and was threatened with closure in 2006; however, it remained open until 2019 when it finally closed.

History

The school was founded on 29 September 1632 with funding from the estate of Lady Margaret Hawkins (widow of

Sir John Hawkins Sir John Hawkins (also spelled Hawkyns) (1532 – 12 November 1595) was a pioneering English naval commander, naval administrator and privateer. He pioneered, and was an early promoter of, English involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. Hawki ...

) who had died in 1619. In her will, dated 23 April 1619, she left £800 'for the purchasing of lands or tenements of a yearly value of forty pounds for and towards the perpetual maintenance of a learned and choice preaching divine, the Master, to keep a free school in Kington, in the County of Herefordshire, and of a learned and discreet Usher under him, for the instructing and teaching of youths and children in literature and good education.' Captain Anthony Lewis, servant to Lady Hawkins and acting executor of the will, purchased School Farm,

Upper Hergest Upper Hergest is a hamlet in Herefordshire, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the ...

, in 1622 to produce the necessary forty pounds a year for running the school. He paid £26 13s 4d for a piece of ground in Kington on which the school would be built. Lewis contracted John Abel of Sarnesfield to build it. John Abel, who was Carpenter to King Charles I, was to provide the materials and was paid £240 for his work. The school is now housed in modern buildings erected in 1962 and 1973, with other buildings erected more recently, almost all of which have been refurbished between 1990 and 1995 to meet the challenges and demands of recent curriculum developments. The original 1600s building is now in use as a private residence. The school has a tradition on visiting the nearby parish church, St. Mary's, to give thanks for its foundation and all those who have served in it over three and a half centuries.

Notable former pupils

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, Actress.

Links and Guides

{{authority control Secondary schools in Herefordshire Kington, Herefordshire Academies in Herefordshire