Bedstone is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in south

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, England, close to the border with

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 Monmouthsh ...

. The village is approximately from the railway stations at

Hopton Heath Hopton Heath, or Hoptonheath, is a hamlet in south Shropshire, England. The border with Herefordshire is close by. It lies on the border of the civil parishes of Clungunford and Hopton Castle. There is a railway station here - Hopton Heath rai ...

and Bucknell and is situated just off the B4367 road.

Bedstone College

Bedstone College, an independent boarding and day school founded in 1948, was purchased in 2017 by London & Oxford Group, an asset management and investment banking firm specialising in introduction of Chinese investment to the UK Education sector. LOG has reportedly made little or no governance changes to the school and "giving its full support to the current management team at Bedstone." Famous former pupils include the present

Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The post ...

Sir Martin Rees Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...

(whose parents founded the school), now Baron Rees of Ludlow, and explorer and TV presenter Monty Halls. The current head is Toby Mullins. Educating around 220 day and boarding students, the College is not selective and does not require pupils to sit an entrance exam. It offers a broad curriculum from reception through to A Level. Physical education and extra-curricular activities are an integral part of the school week, which includes Saturday-morning lessons and five afternoons set aside for sports and a choice of activities. There are four boarding houses: * Bedstone House - for junior girls * Wilson House - for senior girls * Rutter House - for junior boys * Pearson House - for senior boys Each is run by houseparents who are typically academic staff and their families. Its campus houses the notable country house that is Bedstone Court. Its founders include the parents of Sir Martin Rees. On GCSE results, the College is the second best non-selective school in Shropshire and the sixth overall.

Norman Origin

St Mary's

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

dates back to Norman dynasty, Norman times and features an original Normans, Norman baptismal font, font, a timber framed bellcote and a shingled spire, and some of the houses, which include several thatched cottages, are more than 600 years old.

Buildings

Manor Farm house is an example of a timber-framed house and was partly stone-faced in 1775. Bedstone Court, now the home of Bedstone College, is a more flamboyant black-and-white mansion, built between 1882 and 1884, designed by Thomas Harris for Henry Ripley, Member of Parliament, MP and is a calendar house reputed to have 365 windows, 52 rooms (on the first two floors) twelve chimneys and seven external doors. The central hall has a magnificent 52-panelled stained-glass window depicting the months of the year, signs of the zodiac, birds associated with the month and the agricultural activity of the month. The building was heavily damaged by a fire in 1996 but was fully restored and continues to be the centrepiece of Bedstone College: the independent co-educational boarding and day school for pupils from 4 to 18.

Amenities

Until the 2000s there was a post office but now there is just a Royal Mail post box in the hamlet.dracos.co.uk
Postboxes in SY7

Parish

The civil parish covers a small area, with no other settlements than Bedstone itself. With a parish population of just 85 (in 2001), the Parish councils in England, parish council has now been merged with that of neighbouring Bucknell, Shropshire, Bucknell parish. In ecclesiastical terms, the church is linked with those of Hopton Castle (village), Hopton Castle and Clungunford.

References

External links

Village website also includes nearby Bucknell

Bedstone College
official website
Bedstone Educational Limited
new owners of College, at Companies House. Retrieved 27 February 2018
Schools in Shropshire
BBC News, 11 January 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2018 {{authority control Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire