Battle Abbey School is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

day and boarding school in the small town of

Battle, East Sussex Battle is a small town and civil parish in the local government district of Rother in East Sussex, England. It lies south-east of London, east of Brighton and east of Lewes. Hastings is to the south-east and Bexhill-on-Sea to the south. ...

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 southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The senior school occupies part of the town's ruined abbey complex, and it is from here that the school derives its name. Originally formed as St. Etheldreda's, in 1989 Glengorse and Hydneye was merged into the school.

History

The abbey was initially constructed at the behest of the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

invader

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

to commemorate his victory at the site over the Anglo-Saxon King of England,

Harold Godwinson Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the ...

in 1066. Subsequently, the abbey was partially destroyed during the dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII. During this period some of the abbey buildings were destroyed. The 13th-century Abbot’s house was preserved and passed into private hands, and numerous additional structures also survived including the 14th-century gatehouse (which now serves as the main school gate) as well as a ruined monks' dorter (dormitory). The school was founded in 1912, as St. Etheldreda's, Bexhill, by May Jacoby and her sister Helen Sheehan-Dare. It moved into the Abbey in 1922, with an enrolment of 33 girls. Within a year there were 100 girls and the Board of Education officially recognised the school in 1926. The Abbot's house now forms the centrepiece of the senior school, with the preparatory school and nursery situated in the nearby town of Bexhill-on-Sea. Battle Abbey School

Notable alumni

* Georgina Henry, journalist *

Clare Torry Clare H. Torry (born 29 November 1947) is a British singer, well known for writing and performing the wordless vocals on the song " The Great Gig in the Sky" by the group Pink Floyd on their 1973 album '' The Dark Side of the Moon''. She also c ...

, singer *

Dan Poulter Daniel Leonard James Poulter (born 30 October 1978) is a British Conservative Party politician, who was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich. Poulter is a psychiatrist and ...

, Conservative Member of Parliament for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (2010– )

References

External links

School WebsiteProfile
on the

Independent Schools Council The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a non-profit lobby group that represents over 1,300 schools in the United Kingdom's independent education sector. The organisation comprises seven independent school associations and promotes the bus ...

website {{authority control Educational institutions established in 1922 Independent schools in East Sussex Boarding schools in East Sussex Rother District Battle, East Sussex 1922 establishments in England